


Hermitship Oneshots

by MelonWing



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: F/F, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-12-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 10:28:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 20
Words: 40,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23349889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonWing/pseuds/MelonWing
Summary: This is a Oneshot collection for different Hermitcraft ships.
Relationships: Charles | Grian/Technoblade, False/Stress, Grian/Doc, Grian/ImpulseSV, Grian/Mumbo, Grian/Rendog, Mumbo/Iskall, Scar/Grian/Bdubs, Scar/Grian/Cub, grian/ren/doc
Comments: 65
Kudos: 764





	1. Distraction

Relationship: Grian/Doc

_________________________________

Grian’s back hit the wall. Hard. He grumbled a little in annoyance. Soon hands followed to press him against the wall with no way to escape.  
“You’re an asshole, Doc”, he complained, a hint of annoyance in his eyes. He had after all just been pulled into a tiny cave in the middle of the battle field and thrown against a wall.

“It’s always a pleasure to do business with the fearless leader of the G-Team.”  
Grian could feel the cold of the metallic hand on his chin, as his face was lifted upwards. He was glaring right into Doc’s eyes, but not really struggling to get away.

“You shouldn’t be doing this. My teammates will notice I’m missing and find us.”

Doc laughed amused at the threat, not intimidated at all. 

“They won’t be coming. I made sure of that before I got you in here. I’m not that stupid. I send them on a wild goose chase. No one is coming to help you, Gri. We are all alone.”  
Grian frowned at that. He looked at the entrance of the cave they were in. They were well hidden from view. Even if somebody was to pass close by, they probably wouldn’t notice anything.

“Doc, don’t...”

“Like that ever stopped me.” 

Grian wanted to complain more. He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could utter a single word he felt Doc’s lips press against his own. He tensed at once, eyes wide. His fists were grabbing the fabric of Doc’s coat. 

He wanted to push him away so badly. He should have tried to do it, but his mind went blank and he started to melt into the kiss. His cheeks grew warm as he closed his eyes. His arms found their way around Doc as he pulled him even closer, returning the kiss just as passionately. All thoughts of fighting and the war left Grian’s mind. He could have stayed right here forever, being held by Doc, lips locked together.

They only broke apart, when the sound of an explosion shook the cave. Both of them were out of breath, lips swollen and hair dishevelled. Grian looked at the roof of the cave confused as dust came raining down on them.

“Was that one of your canons?”  
Doc’s grin was the only answer Grian needed. He let out an annoyed groan and softly punched Doc’s shoulder. 

“Did you seriously drag me into a cave and start a heavy make-out session just to distract me?”

Doc’s grin grew only wider. “Ma~aybe”, he drawled out, winking at Grian.

Grian threw up his hands in annoyance, pushing himself off the wall and walking to the cave entrance. “What am I supposed to tell my team now?”

“That you couldn’t resist the charm of your lovely boyfriend, even in the midst of a war? That you are fraternizing with the enemy? I’d pay to see their faces, once they realise what’s been going on between us.”

Grian stopped right in the entrance of the cave, glaring back at Doc.

“This...” He pointed between from himself to Doc and back again. “… This never happened.”

Swearing softly under his breath, Grian left the cave and looked at the G-Team base in annoyance. There was a giant hole on the side. Damn… Now he had to come up with an excuse why he hadn’t been there to defend it. He really hated Doc sometimes.


	2. It is you

Relationship: Grian/Ren

\---------------------------------

The Hippie Camp was a peaceful place, quiet and laid back. Sure, they were fighting a corrupt government agency, but most of their time was spend just hanging out. Grian had become quite comfortable around the other two Hippies. He loved spending time taking a break from all the building and tunnel digging,  
He liked evenings the most. He’d be all covered in dirt, Impulse’s face was powdered with redstone dust and Ren would try and fail to wipe the dye off of his hands. They’d just sit around the campfire, talking about everything and nothing at all. And sure, he’d known Impulse and Ren before all this started, but being in this together they had started to develop a really deep bond.

Grian looked up at the giant RV he had just finished building. It was quite impressive. He let out a tiny giggle, thinking of the looks on Doc and Scar’s faces. It would be so freaking amazing.  
As he stretched out the pain in his neck made him aware of how long he had been working on this monstrosity. He really needed a break at the campfire, before he started digging… maybe take a little nap to get his energy back. Yeah, that was a great idea.

He yawned, rounding the corner of the RV and froze. There, at the campfire sat Ren, dirty shirt discarded next to him, his sunglasses up in his hair. The sun reflecting of the sweat on his bare chest. Grian had to swallow as his eyes traced all the lines of the body in front of him. He felt the heat rushing to his face, his heart rate picking up.

What was wrong with him? 

Why did he react like that?

Before Ren could notice him in this state he went back into the direction he came from. He needed a distraction. Now! Or a cold bath. Or both. Maybe he could work some more on the outside of his base… Plant some corals on the ocean floor. Yeah, that sounded good. He’d dig the tunnel another time. He didn’t have to do it today. He’d work far away from Ren and forget about whatever just happened. And tomorrow everything would be fine again. Tomorrow he’d stop thinking about the way Ren’s chest had looked. Tomorrow he’d hopefully be able to look him into the eyes again.

When Grian arrived at the Hippie Camp again the next day, he realised that he couldn’t. He’d just landed, his elytra folding its wings against his back, when his eyes landed on Ren, who had just stepped out of his RV.

Ren, who looked at him and smiled so brightly, he could probably light a room with his smile alone. 

Grian really tried to keep eye contact, but one glance at his friend’s now covered chest was all it took for him to lose his composure. He just hoped Ren wouldn’t notice how flustered he was…

“Grian! My man! I missed you yesterday? Were you back at your base?” 

Grian only nodded, not trusting his voice yet. Impulse who was sitting at the campfire gave him a weird look, his eyebrows raised. Damn, was he so obvious? He cleared his throat and forced a smile.  
“Sorry about yesterday. Important Sahara business. It came up suddenly. But I’m all yours tonight.”  
“Nice. I like that!” Ren said with a smirk, making Grian realise too late that what he had said sounded really ambiguous.  
Damn… He begged his heart to calm down. This was getting ridiculous.

“I’ll start digging”, he blurted out hastily. Any excuse to get away and think of something that wasn’t Ren.

An hour later, shovel in hand, covered in dirt and sweat Grian already felt better. He had needed this. The quiet monotonous work helped him sort out his thoughts.  
So what if he found Ren attractive? That meant nothing at all. He was a handsome guy after all. Most Hermits would agree with him on that. His reaction wouldn’t have been any different if it had been Impulse or Scar sitting there half naked.

“Everything’s okay...”, he muttered to himself, taking out his pickaxe to break some of the stone in his way. “I just need to get a clear head and not think of him that way… Nobody will notice”

“Well you are doing a piss poor job at not being noticed. I’d recommend not talking to yourself.”

Grian dropped his pickaxe in shock and jerked his head around, to see Impulse casually leaning on the wall of his tunnel.

“I’d also recommend not looking at Ren like you are mentally undressing him. Dead giveaway.”

“It’s not like that. I didn’t… did I?”, Grian mumbled, still half in shock and embarrassed.

“Oh, you so did, you idiot. I don’t know what changed since yesterday, but congratulation, you’ve got the hots for our fellow Hippie brother.”

Grian shook his head in denial. He didn’t like Ren that way. He’d never looked at him like that before. 

“Oh, come on… You want to pretend you’re straight?”

“’m not...”

“What?”

“I’m not straight, okay? But Ren… There’s no way. He’s just a friend. So what if he looks really good? There’s no way in hell I like him like that.”

Impulse smirked.

“Well you know, I never talked about any feelings being involved. But now that you said that… maybe you need to re-evaluate what you are feeling.”

Grian felt a blush creeping onto his face. He already hated the way this conversation was going.

“I saw him half naked once! There is no way I’d fall in love from a glance at his chest.”

Grian picked up his tools again and turned around to keep digging. There was a sigh behind him and steps receding. He was just starting to relax, thinking he had peace again, when Impulse spoke up.

“You know… A naked chest probably won’t make you fall in love… But spending each and every day for a month with each other might have made you fall this fucking hard. So get your head out of your arse and confess.” 

Grian stood there still frozen in place long after the sound of Impulse’s steps had faded into the distance. He took a few minutes until he was able to think straight again.  
Damn that guy! What did Impulse know about his feelings? Nothing!

He’d keep going. He’d just ignore the awkwardness between them until it was gone. There were not feelings involved. None at all. They were just fellow Hippie-friends.

When evening came Grian had finally cleared his head again. He sat down across from Ren at the campfire and was finally able to look him into the eyes and smile a little.

He pointedly ignored Impulse snorting next to him.

They just started talking and everything was back to normal. So what if he sometimes still feel a little flutter in hi stomach. That would fade as well with time.

“Oh guys… I’ve got to show you something”, Ren exclaimed after a while, leaving for a moment to go into his RV, returning with a guitar in his hands. “I build this myself. I thought with the campfire and everything a little music would fit right in.”

Impulse laughed and leaned back.

“Well let’s hear it. Can you even play that thing?”

Ren looked at him and mock offense and began softly strumming a melody on the strings.

Grian smiled and hummed along quietly, recognizing the song from somewhere. But then Ren started singing and Grian stopped, mouth slightly agape.

“There is something that I see in the way you look at me...”

He always knew Ren had a nice voice… but his singing. His singing sounded angelic. Grian felt like he was under a spell, not able to look away from the man in front of him as the song went on. He hung onto every word. It was a lovely song and the melody was nice. 

“Could it be this is where I belong?” Ren looked up from the guitar, smiled at him, his eyes shining and winked at him. “It is you I have loved all along.”

Grian’s heart started hammering in his chest. It was only a song, right? That wink was just a joke for sure. Ren would never say something like that to him. And Grian? He...

Was he in love with Ren?

How could you not know if you were in love with somebody. Surely he’d know that, wouldn’t he? Romance novels had taught him that being in love would be so clear. You’d know as soon as it happened. You’d always be happy when you saw the other person, your heart would beat like crazy, you’d constantly blush and… Oh…

“I think I’m in love with you...”

It was only when the music stopped and Impulse next to him started to giggle that Grian realised he had said it out loud!

His eyes widened in shock, hands flying up to cover his face in shame.

“Grian…?”

Grian shook his head

“Look at me, man...”

Grian lowered his hands a little and peeked over his fingertips at Ren. Ren, whose cheeks were tinted red and who was grinning from ear to ear, like a little boy on his birthday.

“I love you too.”


	3. Valentine's Day

Relationship: Grian/Doc

\-------------------------------------

Grian had never cared for Valentine’s day much. He’d never been in a relationship that made him care about a holiday dedicated to lovers. He would probably miss the date altogether if it weren’t for the decorations popping up in some areas of the Hermitcraft server.   
But this year was different. This year all the hearts and lovey-dovey atmosphere annoyed him. He shouldn’t glare at his fellow Hermits on a date walking past him, but he just couldn’t help it. Still, it was his own fault. He was the one who fell in love with a scary Half-Creeper whose only love was his newest redstone project.

“Grian? You okay, dude?” 

Grian snapped out of his thoughts and looked at Iskall who was standing next to him in the middle of the shopping district.

“What? Yeah. Fine. Totally fine. Nothing wrong with me.”

“Uh-hu...” Iskall didn’t sound convinced at all, raising his eyebrows at him. “And you didn’t glare at Cleo on Joe over there one bit. Nope. No, sir.”  
Grian felt his cheeks burning a little in embarrassment. Of course Iskall had noticed. He was so obvious that even Mumbo would have noticed his foul mood.

“It’s just...” Grian waved his hand at Joe and Cleo who were now sitting on a bench, Joe reciting poetry and Cleo pretending not to like it. “They are so happy.”

“And why would that be a bad thing?”

Grian shrugged and glared at the floor. “It’s not, okay? It’s amazing and wonderful and I shouldn’t be jealous, but I really am.”

Iskall made a shocked sound and looked from Grian to the happy couple and back to Grian again. He lowered his voice to a whisper even though they were to far to be overheard anyway.

“You like Cleo?”

Grian’s head shot up and he gaped at Iskall.

“No!”

“Joe then? I don’t judge, man.”

“NO!” Grian answered more forceful this time and then he sighed defeated. “I just want to go on a date too, you know. I’ve never had a Valentine’s date before and that has always been okay. But since I’ve joined you guys...” He hesitated for a moment. 

How much should he tell Iskall? What would Iskall think about his crush? And knowing Iskall, he wouldn’t give the topic a rest. A glance at the other’s eyes was all he needed. There was a curious sparkle in there that wouldn’t go away.

“So~o...” Iskall started in an amused tone. “You do have your mind set on someone. Why, I am so glad you told me, Grian. I am after all the best wingman you could ask for. So who is it? Mumbo? He was the one who got you into this world after all. Feeling some affection for our fellow business partner?”

Grian just shook his head and grimaced. He liked Mumbo, but the thought of dating him? No way.

“Ren then? Did you start the whole Hippie thing to be close to him?”

“No! That wasn’t about Ren!

“O~oh… Who was it about then? Impulse? Did you bond at the campfire? Did you spend some lovely hours doing naughty Hippie stuff?”

Grian blushed at the guessing and shook his head, before mumbling something unintelligible.

“What?”

“It’s Doc...”, Grian whispered and Iskall gasped in shock.

“You’re in love with Doc?!”

Iskall probably hadn’t meant to be that loud. He did have a loud voice after all. He probably hadn’t meant to say it at all. And he couldn’t have known that Doc would walk around the corner exactly at that moment.

Doc froze.

Grian froze.

Iskall looked at Doc and back to Grian, all the colour fading from his face, horrified at his own mistake. They all just stood there for what felt like an eternity.

“What the fuck?”, Doc’s voice finally broke the silence.

Grian should have laughed and played it off as a joke. He would have gotten away with it. They would have all forgotten about this in a few days. But his heart was beating in his ears like a drum and he panicked. His instinct kicked in and before he knew it he was in the air, fleeing at a crazy high speed.

Doc knew.

He knew!

Oh dear god, Doc knew he was in love with him.

He would never be able to look into Doc’s eyes again.

What was he supposed to do now? 

Grian dived into his base, landing on the floor with too much momentum, tripping over and crashing into a pile of shulker boxes that opened and spilled items everywhere. He stayed right there on the floor breathing heavy. He felt like crying, but no tears were coming. Doc was probably disgusted by him. 

Now he wouldn’t even be able to enjoy the kinda-friendship they had going on. He couldn’t try to find happiness in all of their small interactions. After all of this Doc wouldn’t look at him anymore with that lopsided charming grin. Doc wouldn’t take his time anymore to explain how those overly complicated redstone machines worked, even though they both knew Grian would never understand it.

Why did he fall for Doc? Why couldn’t it have been someone safe like Mumbo? Someone who would have been nice about turning him down.

Grian just lay there, lost in a spiral of emotion. The sun was slowly sinking and his base was only dimly lit now.   
He needed to fix the lighting. He needed to fix the mess he was still lying in. Hell, he needed a proper sorting system. He really needed to get up. He needed to do something.

He heard the sound of footsteps and sighed. “I don’t need your company right now, Iskall. And I don’t need your pity or any apologies, got that?”

His only answer was a gurgled groan. His eyes snapped open wide in shock. He jumped up, reaching for his sword, that had landed in the pile of items, but a green fist already connected with his abdomen, throwing him a few feet away from his weapon. 

Grian cursed himself, as he looked at the zombies closing in on him, one of them now carrying his heavily enchanted diamond sword. Could his luck be any worse today? He didn’t need the pain of a fucking respawn on top of it all today. Even worse, he would respawn right next to the horde of rabbit zombies only to be torn apart again until somebody came to help him.  
His only option was to flee. 

Grian turned around, rockets in hand and jumped of the ground. The first rocket lit and fired, but just before he could get away a zombie grabbed him by the ankle only to throw him back to the ground.

The zombies were all around him now, weapons raised, ready to tear him apart.

Grian squeezed his eyes shut. And finally he felt tears running down his face. This was just too much. A rough hand was around his neck, pressing down. He couldn’t breathe. He struggled to get away from the zombie, but as his vision started to blacken his strength left him.

And suddenly the pressure was gone. Grian sucked the air in, heart beating fast and breathing heavy. He looked up at the zombie in confusion only to see a trident sticking out of it’s chest. The trident stayed there for another second before it flew back out of the zombie and up to one of the entrances of his base, where it was caught by an all too familiar figure.

“Doc?” Grian croaked.

The trident flew again, almost too fast for the human eye, impaling another zombie. As it made its way back to its owner, Doc jumped down, already hitting the next zombie with his mechanical fist. If Grian hadn’t been so high on adrenaline, he probably would have been star struck right now. 

“Get back, Grian! Get your fucking sword!”, Doc screamed from the middle of the small horde, who was now fixated on the new threat.

Grian almost stumbled over his own feet as he hurried to his weapon. He managed to reach it just in time to stab another zombie, watching the body dissolve into ash and pieces of rotten flesh. He rushed over to Doc, who was kicking away one zombie, while his trident impaled another. Naturally Grian took the position right at Doc’s back to defend his blind spots. He wasn’t as good in battle as Doc, not by a long shot, but the way they moved so completely in synch, slicing through the mob of zombies still felt like a very elegant dance.

The last zombie fell to the ground. Grian stood there breathing heavily, his sword hanging loosely by his side.   
Just as he was starting to feel happy about the win a sound behind him made him tense up again.

Doc! He had almost forgotten about what had happened earlier. 

“Thanks… for the help. I’ll… you know… I’ll just be… I think I need to go to… There’s probably something important to do at… Sahara, yeah Sahara needs me”, Grian mumbled putting his sword away and getting out his rockets, never once looking behind him at Doc.

“Grian...”

Grian fumbled with the rockets, almost dropping them to the ground. His hands were shaking.

“Let’s just…” Grian swallowed hard, trying to keep talking without giving away how he felt. “Let’s just pretend today never happened, okay? Let’s just pretend everything between us is still fine. Let’s just pretend we are still friends….”

“Well, I don’t want to be friends anymore after today.”

Grian’s head whipped around at that, looking with wide and saddened eyes at Doc. Why did he have to be so direct? 

“I… Yeah… Sure… That’s fine… I’ll just… Leave… Yeah. Sorry for bothering you.”

Grian took a small step back, fist clenching so hard around the rocket he was afraid it would break.

“Damn it, you idiot!” Doc growled and strode forwards grabbing Grians arm, taking the rocket from him and throwing it to the side. “Don’t run! Not again. Do you know how worried I was when I saw you with those monsters? Don’t ever do that to me again.”

Grian looked up in utter confusion. He didn’t understand what was happening. One moment Doc was so cold and now he was worried? What the hell was going on?

“But you said, you don’t want to be friends...”

“Damn...” Doc ran his mechanical hand through his head, his other hand still holding onto Grian’s arm, as if he was afraid Grian would run away. “I’m not good at this, okay? I sometimes say things that are easy to misunderstand. What I meant was: I want to be more than friends. I’ve been trying to flirt with you for a while now, but you...” Doc sounded so exasperated now, waving his free arm around. “You just don’t get it!”

“You were flirting?”

Grian couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He wrecked his brain, thinking about an instance were Doc had been flirting. He came up empty. He had never noticed Doc behaving differently with him than with anybody else.

“Of course I was, you idiot! Do you think I’d take the time to explain all my machines to you if I didn’t like you? Or that time I fixed your little redstone farm in the middle of the night, even though I had a lot of work at my own base? Oh and let’s not forget how I stole a freaking time-machine just to get your attention?”

Grian felt his face burning up and knew he was probably as red as a tomato right now. He felt like the information had overloaded his brain and it was starting to reboot itself now. Doc liked him…? Like really liked him? Was this a dream?

“I… I didn’t notice”, Grian replied in a stupor, kicking himself mentally in the ass for saying something so utterly dumb and not at all romantic. 

Doc snorted in amusement, grinning at him the way he always did. And just like all the other times a warm and tingly feeling spread inside of Grian.

“Yeah. You are an idiot in that regard. But maybe I was an idiot as well. After all I never noticed you felt the same way… So now that that’s out of the way. You wanna be my valentine, Grian?”

Grian smiled brightly and nodded. As soon as he did he was swooped up in Doc’s arms, his feet lifting of the ground. Doc looked up at him fondly and their lips met in a sweet kiss. A kiss holding all the emotions they had held back for so long.

Grian had never cared for Valentine’s day much. But this year was different. This right here… He could really get used to it.


	4. Hello Neighbour!

Relationship: Grian/Doc

_________________________________

Grian’s boat fell from the rocket and he landed in the water of the ocean with a splash and a tiny, totally manly shriek. He looked around at the empty landscape. Ocean and Islands undisturbed of buildings. He had made it. Season 7! This was going to be amazing. He had never jumped worlds with the other’s and he was so excited to start again. But before he headed out to find his own place, there was something he needed to do first. He got out his communicator, which had thankfully survived the world jump and typed in his message.

<Grian> Just landed safely. You already there? Got any coordinates?

It took no more than a minute before his communicator beeped, the numbers he needed flashing up on screen. He started rowing, eyes on his own coordinates. He really missed his Elytra. He could have been there in a few minutes, but it took him ages. He was about to consider taking a break, when he saw what he was looking for in the distance.  
It was totally surreal seeing his mansion in the distance… Well to be precise two halves of his wooden mansion. He wasn’t sure how they had managed to make it jump worlds with them, but he sure as hell wouldn’t question it too much or he would be bored to death with technical lectures he’d never understand.

Grian slowed down and stepped ashore, walking up the hill until he stood in front of the houses. It didn’t even take a second for him to figure out which of those sides belonged to Doc. The neatly trimmed grass in contrast to the wild growth said everything.

“Doc?”, he called, stepping into the house… half of the house. It was really weird how there was no wall on one side, but whatever. He hadn’t seen Bdubs anywhere on the other side of the property. He walked to the other room and smiled softly. Doc was lying on a couch, eyes closed and breathing deeply. On his stomach was a small kitten, fast asleep as well.

Grian stepped forward quietly, just looking at Doc’s peaceful face. He looked so good like this. He didn’t want to wake him up, but he knew Doc would be pissed if he didn’t. He had expected him after all and most likely hadn’t meant to fall asleep.

Grian smiled a little, bending over Doc’s sleeping form, careful not to disturb the kitten and pressed his lips softly onto Doc’s.  
He felt the other stirring under him, eyes blinking a few times, before he looked at him. A hand rose up and buried itself in Grian's hair to pull him closer. Doc’s lips parted slightly and Grian took the opportunity to deepen the kiss.

This… This was perfect and he could have stayed like this forever if it hadn’t been for another sound, disturbing them.

“Awwww… Isn’t that the cutest thing to look at. Didn’t know you guys were that intimate.”

Blood rushed to Grian’s face and he jumped back from the couch, hearing an annoyed groan from Doc himself, who looked as disappointed as Grian felt, that their make-out session was cut short

“Bdubs?!” Grian looked at their fellow Hermit, who was sitting atop the fence, munching on some carrots and grinning at them.

“Man, I was just starting to enjoy the show. It’s kinda amazing to see that the old man has feelings, who would have guessed.”

Doc grumbled and stood up, glaring at Bdubs as if he was wishing a thunderstorm upon his new neighbour.  
“You!”, he hissed, voice low and threatening. “Be glad, that I haven’t gotten a trident yet or you would have a new set of holes in your body right about now.”

Bdubs just laughed in amusement and jumped down the fence onto Doc’s side of the property.

“We are friends Doc, you wouldn’t hurt me, would you?”, Bdubs just replied unimpressed, walking up to them and looking past Doc at Grian. “And such a pretty, little thing you’ve caught yourself. We spend so little time together last season, Grian… my Bro. Had I known Doc was interested in you, I would have gone after our fearless Dragon leader earlier, just to annoy him a little.”

Grian blushed, too shocked at the forward attitude to formulate any answer. He didn’t have to reply any ways. A split second later Bdubs had Doc’s sword pointed at his chin. He looked at it in mild surprise, but then grinned again, looking at them curiously. “So tell me. When did you guys get so… close. Was it after Grian started a war against you… or after you stole his time machine? Oooor was it after he decided to kill you, so that his friend could win Demise… Honestly you two were fighting the whole season… Unless this is your thing. Violent hate-fu…”

“BDUBS!”, Grian cried out, finally stepping forward. “It’s not like this.” He cast a pointed look at Doc, who sighed in annoyance and put his sword away again. “Yeah, Yeah. No threats of violence over stupid stuff”, Doc grumbled, but still kept glaring at Bdubs.

“So~o care to explain?”

Doc just showed Bdubs his middle finger and turned away, walking back to his half of the house. “Just ignore him, Gri.”

“Gri? Oh how cute. You have pet names for each other? I want to know everything!”

“We have been dating since after the Area 77 chaos”, Grian began and heard a frustrated groan from Doc somewhere behind him. Well, how else was he supposed to get rid of Bdubs then telling him what he wanted to know? “And Demise was… Well we had agreed beforehand, that we wouldn’t hold back. And I had a deal with Iskall, so there you got it. We don’t hate each other. Any more questions?”

Grian instantly regretted the words that had just left his mouth. Bdubs eyes started to grow wide and sparkle in excitement.

He heard Doc from inside murmur a quiet “Oh shit… He has done it.”

“Oh! I love a good love story. You need to tell me everything! Who confessed first? How did you confess? Does Doc always call you Gri? What do you call him? Is Doc ever not grumpy with you? Aren’t you getting on Doc’s nerve with your cheerfulness? Why does no one on the server know? How does it feel to kiss a creeper? Isn’t his metal arm getting annoying when you cuddle? Isn’t it scary to have sex with a creeper? What if he explodes in a not so nice way? And who of you fearless leaders is the one leading in bed?” Grian blushed even harder than before at the intimate nature of some of the questions. Bdubs only winked at him before adding one more question to his long list. “Are you up for a threesome?”

There was an enraged roar from the house as Doc flung himself at Bdubs throwing them both into the damp grass.

Grian sighed in mild annoyance. Until Doc decided to get a wall added to his house this was going to be an awful neighbourhood. Next season… Next season he made sure they both build far away from all of the other Hermits to have peace and quiet.


	5. Jealousy

Relationship: Grian/Impulse

_________________________________

Impulse looked at Grian. No, he didn‘t simply look, he stared at him, eyes glued to the person in front of him

Maybe this hadn‘t been a good idea after all. When Grian had suggested it, he thought it would be hilarious, but now? He wasn‘t so sure any more. No, scratch that. A part of him knew for a fact that this was an awful idea, while another, far more annoying part of him was practically cheering.

  
He blinked and then blinked again, trying to process what was happening. There stood Grian in the fake kitchen, his sandy blonde hair brushed back, wearing of all things a pink, frilly apron. His rosy cheeks made Impulse wonder, if he had put on Makeup as well.

The moment Grian turned to him and looked directly at him, with a wide excited smile, eyes practically glowing, Impulse’s heart started racing madly.

  
Fuck.

  
He thought he had been over that little crush he had developed during their time as Hippies. He had buried those feelings along with the withering flower crown. He had even stopped dreaming about those sparkling magenta eyes, and that charming smile, and that beautiful face and… Oh fuck.

  
“So what do you think? Am I looking good enough to be Iskall’s wife?”, Grian asked with a tiny giggle.

That giggle… That damn giggle. Oh how he had loved to hear it back when they were sitting around the campfire. How he had always tried to be the one to cause this sound.

Impulse had to swallow before answering, trying to compose himself, not trusting his voice before that.

  
“You… Well if you go out on stage this pretty, Iskall might actually want to marry you”, he replied in a teasing tone, grinning a little, hoping to get a warm laugh in return.

The grin faltered, though, when he saw the blush spreading over Grian’s face. Wait, what the…? Was Grian really getting all blushy at the thought of marrying Iskall?

Impulse wanted to frown or glare, but he forced himself to keep the smile on his face. So what if he felt like someone had his heart in an iron fist right now? So what if he wanted to flee the scene at this very moment? So what if he wanted to run to Tango and vent about everything that happened right at this moment? So what if he just wanted to kill Iskall right away now to skip all this sharade?

He couldn’t blame anyone but himself about the situation he got himself into. He should have told Grian back at the Hippie Camp how he felt. Back then Grian had talked about Iskall without becoming a blushing mess. Back then he might have been open for dating. Now? Well maybe at least he’d get to see Grian become happy.

  
He had to be supportive now and shove his own feelings into the background. Grian seemed so nervous the closer they got to their planned event.

  
“You’ll be amazing, don’t worry. You prepared everything so well. It’s going to be epic”, Impulse reassured Grian, who nodded hesitantly. “Now go, put on some finishing touches. I saw you eyeing the cabinets over there. Do your thing and make it look even more amazing”

  
Grian grinned at him again and hurried off to said cabinet. Impulse shook his head, casting one last fond look in the direction of his partner in crime, before he went to the corner of the stage.

He pulled his shirt and trousers off, throwing it somewhere backstage for later.. Now where was his suit and costume? He was sure he had put it somewhere around here…

  
“Yo, Grian? Seen my clothes around here?”, he called over, not even turning around.

  
“Bottom cabinet. I didn’t want them to get dirty while I was building.”

  
After a little searching, and a lot of cursing he found the suit and got dressed, trying to style his hair a little more like Iskall. Luckily their hair colour and length didn’t differ too much, so he didn’t need to wear a wig. To finish the look, he put on a fake beard and diamond eye, looking at himself in the reflection in one of the metal surfaces. Well this looked convincing enough.

Finally finished, he turned around to look back at Grian. Grian, who was staring at him out of hazy eyes, blushing, lips slightly parted and looking kind of breathless.

Impulse couldn’t decide whether to be turned on by Grian looking at him like that or to be annoyed, because he knew he just got that reaction because he had dressed up as Iskall and would never get that look otherwise.

Well, he decided not to feel anything at all. Nope. He was totally cool with this. He would not start some tragic unrequited love story now. He’d get this damn thing over with, kill Iskall, convince Grian to go for it and then move on to Season 7 without ever looking back. He’d keep himself very busy then. Starting a new world was always a lot of work and he loved it. It would clear his mind of everything and nobody would notice if he built his base as far away as possible from Grian’s. Well… Tango certainly would, but he wouldn’t judge too much and maybe come over with ice cream to let him rant.

  
A loud beeping from their communicators broke the silence and apparently Grian’s trance, who hurriedly took out the device to look at the message.

“It’s Iskall. He’s here. He’s waiting for our signal to start this ride.” Grian grinned, back to his cheerful self. “Let’s do this!”

Impulse nodded and got into position behind the door, waiting for his cue to enter again.

  
Everything went on without a hitch.

So what if he glared more than absolutely necessary. The script said he was supposed to look pissed. Nobody would second guess why he looked like that. It took all his willpower though, to direct the glare at Grian and not at Iskall who was riding by all cheerful and excited.

  
The minecart just passed through the last door, off to Impulse’s part of the ride. Iskall’s laughter was fading into the distance, when Grian suddenly took his hand, a worried frown on his face.

  
“Are you alright? You seemed off back there. Is something the matter? Did I do anything wrong? I know I overacted a little in the last part…” Grian kept rambling on and Impulse felt like he had been punched in the gut. Grian had noticed how he was really feeling, but he had started blaming himself somehow. Damn, he really needed to get a grip on those stupid emotions. He couldn’t bare to hurt Grian.

  
“Nah, everything good. I just… I’m worried about my redstone failing.”

  
A lie.

  
He had tested this so many times himself. There was no way it would fail. But Grian seemed to be reassured by that so it was okay to lie. He’d do anything it took to make Grian happy, even if that entailed being his wingman.

  
“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve seen what you can do. I trust you and your skills and you should as well!” Grian smiled at him again and all Impulse could think about was how much he wanted to kiss him now.

  
Damn, he really wasn’t a good friend.

  
“Let’s go. We don’t have much time left to get to the shop”, he said as an excuse to be able to turn away from Grian.

  
The exit point wasn’t far away from their stage and they soon stood in front of the finishing point of the ride, Diorite in hand. They both had a block, even though Impulse had already told Grian he could have the honour to deal the killing blow. But now? He cast a side glance to Grian’s excited face, the way he was bouncing a little on his feet, eyes searching for any sign of movement in front of them.

  
The moment Iskall appeared in front of them Impulse couldn’t hold back and punched the diorite right into their victim’s face, before Grian could even react. He watched the body dissolve into sparks, feeling kind of empty inside. This really hadn’t felt as fulfilling as he thought it would. It just made him feel all the more guilty about his chaos of emotions.

  
“Impulse? What the heck?” Grian threw the Diorite block away, giving him a partly annoyed, partly confused look.

Impulse shrugged. He didn’t know what to say that wouldn’t make him sound utterly ridiculous.

“You could have said something, you know? It was you who won the bidding for his death!”

At Impulse’s second shrug and empty look, the annoyance seemed to fade from Grian’s eyes, only to be replaced with more confusion. “Impulse, what is going o-”

  
“You should head over to his respawn point. It’s always nice to have someone there for you when your body reforms. He’ll be grateful… I mean, just go for it then.”

  
Grian looked at him like he had grown a second head or declared his eternal hate for redstone. Why couldn’t he just get the message and leave? “He told us to meet up here though. Both of us. What is…”

  
And again Impulse interrupted him, before Grian could question him any more. “Well I just think after all the adrenaline being alone with him might help you. I bet he’ll accept you with open arms. It’ll be great, just great.” Impulse’s voice broke a little at the last word. He forced a smile. Grian still didn’t smile.

  
“What the hell are you talking about?!”, he finally asked.

  
“You. Iskall. I’m just trying to be a good wingman here. I know you like him. Go and confess. I’m rooting for you.” His words sounded hollow and uttering them alone already hurt. How would he deal with those two actually dating?

  
“I’m not.”

  
“Not what?”

  
“Rooting for us. Me and Iskall? Not a thing. He got the hots for Stress.”

  
Impulse’s eyes widened. He walked right into that. But he couldn’t have known that Grian was also in love with an unavailable man. “Damn, sorry Grian. I didn’t realise. I’m so sorry, but hey, you’ll get over him, don’t worry.”

  
Grian threw up his hands in the air and an exasperated whine left his mouth. “Why the heck would you think I’m into Iskall of all people?” He sounded confused and desperate at the same time.

  
“Well the way you looked at me when I put on the costume! The way you blushed when I said Iskall would marry you!”, Impulse almost shouted, his tone slightly accusing.

  
“That was because of you!” Grian actually shouted back, hands balled into fists. “You were running around half naked, calling me pretty. How the fuck was I supposed to stay calm?!”

  
“Wait… Come again? Why would you…?” Impulse asked. He thought he knew the answer. But maybe he was only getting his hopes up for nothing. He needed Grian to say it. He needed to hear it.

  
“It’s not Iskall I like, you damn idiot. It’s you.”

  
Impulse grinned. He just couldn’t help it. He felt warm and tingly all over. He had dreamt of hearing those words. He had imagined so many confession-scenarios. Hearing them – actually hearing them outside of a dream, outside of a fantasy - just made him so happy. And it got even better when the annoyed look disappeared from Grian’s face to be replaced with a shy, loving smile.

  
“I guess I don’t have to wonder any more how you feel about me”, Grian said with a quiet giggle, hesitantly taking a step forward and taking Impulse’s hand into his own. “I just… I never noticed until today that you were interested as well. I thought you were into Tango…”

  
Impulse laughed softly, shaking his head. “Me and Tango? We are just friends.” He could see though why anyone would think that. They were inseparable sometimes. “I fell in love with you way back. You remember the trials to join the Hippies? You looked really cute with your flower crown and being all excited.” He laughed again at the memory. “There was just no helping it. I’ve been in love for so long.”

  
Grian blushed a little, his smile still not faltering. “We are both idiots then. We could have been dating for months.”

  
Impulse nodded. They were so close now, foreheads almost touching, breath intermingling. And Impulse just needed this to go one step further. He needed to feel what no daydream had ever been able to give him. “May I kiss you?”

  
Being so close to each other, he saw Grian’s pupils dilate and hear his breath hitch. A tiny nod and their lips clashed together, arms wrapping around each other. One of his hands found its way into Grian’s hair and he pulled him even closer.

  
They didn’t hear the sound of steps or the door opening. Only when there was a pointed cough they separated, even if only by a few centimetres. They were both out of breath and Impulse’s eyes travelled to Grian’s swollen lips. It was kind of crazy to know that he had been the one to cause this. And he himself most likely didn’t look any less dishevelled.

  
“Wow”, Impulse whispered, not able to really put into words what he felt right now and Grian just nodded to that.

  
After they heard Iskall clear his throat again, they parted, looking to him with matching smiles.

  
Iskall stared at them, rolled his eyes and then grinned as well. “Well if I had known killing me would be such a turn on to you guys, I would have let you assassinate me way sooner to get rid of the freaking sexual tension you had going on.”


	6. Hermitcraft Challenges

Relationship: Mumbo/Iskall

_________________________________

Iskall stared at the coordinated Mumbo had send him in confusion. It wasn’t the location of Mumbo’s base, that much he knew. They had exchanged coordinates before even putting down the first blocks of their bases. Iskall was glad they had accidentally settled in the same area. Visiting his boyfriend would have been freaking hard without the help of an Elytra otherwise. And sure, they sometimes prepared surprise dates for each other, but just sending coordinates?

Iskall sighed and hit a button the side of his mechanical eye. His current coordinates appeared in the corner of his vision. Well at least the spot Mumbo had picked wasn’t far away.

  
<Iskall85> I’ll be there in a few minutes, Honey bee

  
He typed his message before turning back to his starter base. He had still so much to do… Well he’d return to work later. Better not keep Mumbo waiting. If he got too impatient he sometimes did the most ridiculous things or keep himself busy by building some crazy machines. He just needed to put away all the building blocks, maybe freshen up a little.

Mumbo never cared if Iskall was sweaty and dusty from building, but Iskall himself felt weird if he stood next to Mumbo in his prim and proper suit like that. How Mumbo managed to stay so clean and only have slightly stained hands from all the redstone work would always be a mystery.

  
It only took a few minutes for him to get ready and change into a fresh set of clothes. Mumbo had already sent him the coordinates two more times, without any more explanation of course. While he loved his boyfriend’s weird side, sometimes it was really annoying… Still endearing though, very endearing. And a little mystery sometimes made things more exciting.

  
Grumbling a little about their current state of infrastructure, Iskall fought his way through the thicket of the jungle. They needed roads as soon as possible. Preferably a direct road between his and Mumbo’s base. One not overgrown by vines.

He pushed away one more bush and entered the area the coordinates had pointed him too.In the middle was a building that must have been build by Mumbo. This was… Not really what he had expected. He had barely stepped up to it to take a look, when Mumbo came running around the corner, grinning like a madman.

  
“Iskall! Finally! Took you long enough.”

  
“Yeah… Love you too, Honey bee.”

  
Mumbo faltered, as if he really had just forgotten greeting him first, grabbed both of his cheeks and almost smashed their mouths together. Well… Whatever made Mumbo so excited, he could get used to his boyfriend’s more aggressive side. They parted a little out of breath, but Mumbo left him no time to calm down.

  
“Come on, come on”, he pulled Iskall into this strange build. He had to admit it looked really nice. He never got why Mumbo didn’t consider himself a good builder. It fit right into the jungle as if it had been there forever. “So I have a small thing to ask of you if you wouldn’t mind. Just come over here. Ring the bell. Hurry!”

  
Iskall followed Mumbo and looked at the bell a little uncertain. There was still a little paranoia left in him from their game of Demise that made him hesitate. “Is it even safe?”

  
Mumbo looked at him with wide, innocent eyes. Okay, that was not suspicious at all. There was something going on.

  
Mumbo still smiled and rang the bell to show it was safe.

  
“Well I’ll believe you, but only because I love you too much for your own good…”

Mumbo practically glowed at those words and right after the sound of the bell he pushed Iskall towards a chest that contained some Flint and Steel as well as some cookies. “Light the wood and then eat the sacred cookie!”

Mumbo fumbled around a little as he got the stuff out of the chest and did the things he had just ordered Iskall to do.

Iskall sighed but still picked it up. “This feels like an initiation into a cult.. Another one. I thought we left that behind last season.”

  
“Just do it. Don’t worry. Hurry up.”

  
Iskall cast a fond look at Mumbo’s excitement and lit the wood on fire before eating the cookie. It tasted amazing. Mumbo must have had help then. His boyfriend couldn’t cook or bake if his life depended on it. Going by how amazing they were he guessed Scar was the one who donated those sacrilegious cookies.

Mumbo was almost staring at him, watching his every movement like a hawk. Iskall still wasn’t sure what was happening right now, but he’d just go along with whatever happened. Once he had finished his cookie, Mumbo crossed the short distance between them. His manic grin made way for a fond smile. “You will never change, right? Always a messy eater…”, Mumbo whispered as he gently brushed his fingers over Iskall’s lip to get rid of the remaining crumbs.  
Iskall shuddered, took Mumbo’s hand and pressed a gentle kiss to it. “What now?”

  
As if he had flicked a lever, Mumbo was back to the craziness. “Hermitcraft Challenges!”

  
“Wait what now?”

  
“You’re in! You’re in. You lit the fire, you ate the cookie!”

  
Iskall had rarely been so confused in his life. What the hell was going on in his boyfriend’s mind? Had he hit his head to hard? Had he respawned a little jumbled?

  
“Honey bee… Mumbo, what the heck are you talking about.”

  
“I want you to write down some challenges, put them in a dispenser and we each have to do one of them.”

  
Well as confusing as this was, it sounded like fun and when Mumbo was this excited there was no point in denying him. Maybe a little game was needed to get him to relax after all the work he did on his base.

  
“Alright… I think I get it. Just write down some fun tasks.” Iskall took out some paper and began writing. He wasn’t sure what to put down. He after all hadn’t been able to think it over for a while like Mumbo apparently had. He had to admit his tasks weren’t very creative, but oh well, it was just to have a little fun. He put the challenges in a Dispenser just as Mumbo did.

  
“So you wanna go first or do we go at the same time?”

  
Instead of answering Mumbo hit the button on his Dispenser, catching the paper effortlessly mid air and looking at it. He gave a little laugh and glanced at Iskall. “Tame a parrot? Really? We live in a jungle. Not much of a challenge. Give me a minute and I’m done with that.”

  
Iskall shrugged. He hadn’t really been that creative, he knew, but he wanted Mumbo to have some company to care for. He knew how Mumbo got with big projects. If he had to remember to feed the pet he almost always remembered to feed himself. He had kind of hoped Mumbo would get that challenge out of the three.

  
“So do I get the paper now?”

Mumbo nodded hastily, his eyes almost boring holes into Iskall.

  
Damn, why did that make him so freaking nervous?

  
Iskall turned around and pressed the button. Nothing came out and he grumbled a bit. Behind him he heard rustling of fabric, but didn’t pay it much attention. He needed no help to push a stupid button. After he had pressed it about four more times a paper finally flew out, landing right in his face. He picked the note, sighed and read it aloud.

  
“Iskall, will you marry me…”

  
Iskall only realised what the note said once the words left his mouth. His eyes widened and his breath hitched. He read the note again, and again as if to make sure his brain wasn’t playing tricks.

“M-Mumbo…?” Slowly, hesitantly he turned around and lowered his gaze to Mumbo, who was down on bended knee right before him, a small box in his hand that contained a simple silver band. His cheeks were deep red and he was looking almost adorably nervous.

  
“Say something, babe”, he finally whispered after Iskall had been starring open mouthed at him for a good minute.

  
“Did you really make up this whole charade just to propose?”

  
Mumbo shrugged and smiled slyly. “Well it is hard to surprise you without any effort.” He cleared his throat and looked up at him, eyes filled with love and adoration. “So what do you say Iskall, will you marry me?”

  
“You are crazy.”

  
“Crazy good or Crazy bad?”

  
Iskall snorted in amusement and shook his head. “You are always the best, even when you go crazy.”

  
“So…? This is not really a comfortable position, babe.”

  
Iskall laughed and then nodded. “Do I want to spend the rest of my days with a crazy spoon? What a stupid question. Of course I do.”

  
Mumbo’s eyes sparkled and Iskall was pretty sure he saw the beginning of tears there. Mumbo’s hands were shaking a little as he took the ring out of the box, he took Iskall’s hand and gently slid it over his finger, before pressing a soft kiss to it.

  
Iskall grinned, grabbed Mumbo and pulled him up. They both looked at each other, nothing but love and passion in their eyes. And as their lips met, Iskall couldn’t imagine a more perfect moment than this.


	7. Intervention

Relationship: Scar/Grian/Cub

_________________________________

Mumbo knew he should have knocked. He always knocked when entering someone’s base… but well it was hard to knock or ring a bell in Grian’s massive base. There wasn’t even a real door in there. He still wished he had announced his presence before heading to the upper floors in search for his partner in crime.  
He hadn’t been prepared for what he saw. He swore it was an image he would never ever get out of his head again. His whole face felt so hot, it was most likely the same colour as his tie. There in front of him on a huge bed was Grian… naked… and holy hell he wasn’t alone. Scar and Cub were with him. And he was pretty sure he’d never forget how flexible Grian seemed to be between the other two guys and...

“Mumbo!” Grian shrieked and that finally made Mumbo snap out of his daze.

“Oh my word! Sorry!”, he stuttered, turning around so fast he almost stumbled. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry. I didn’t mean to… It just… I just wanted to...”  
There was rustling of fabrics and some other sounds he didn’t want to think about.

“You can turn around again”, Grian grumbled, sounding a little annoyed, and Mumbo didn’t blame him.

Mumbo slowly turned around, not sure what to expect. Grian was fully dressed, standing in front of the bed, arms crossed in front of his chest. His hair was still tousled, his neck littered in red marks and out of breath. But he still managed to look majorly pissed. Behind him on the bed Cub and Scar were still sitting there and while Cub was dressed, face pretty red. Scar had only put on his trousers, smirking at Mumbo.

“Guys… I’m so sorry. I…”

“Let’s talk downstairs”, Grian interrupted him, not leaving any room for arguments.

Mumbo just nodded and followed his friend to the bubble elevator that was never really used. But oh well he didn’t trust himself with his Elytra at the moment any ways.

The moment they stepped on to the ground floor, Grian turned around and glared at him. Being so close, Mumbo noticed a slight blush on his cheeks. Well at least he wasn’t the only one embarrassed at the situation.

“Mumbo~o”, Grian whined the glare finally fading. “Why did you just come over unannounced? You weren’t supposed to see this.”

“Yeah… If it’s any consolation… I didn’t want to see your naked butt getting two.”

“MUMBO!” Grian cried out exasperated. “Don’t… Don’t ever talk about… anything you saw up there.”

Even through all the embarrassment, Mumbo still smirked a little. He didn’t get to see Grian this flustered very often. If he hadn’t felt so bad about the whole mess, he would have taken the opportunity to tease him a little more.

“I’m sorry, okay. I didn’t plan on seeing you like this. I mean… I didn’t even know you and those two were… Whatever you are...” Mumbo looked at Grian curiously. “What are they to you, if I may ask? Have you been dating without telling your best friend about it?”

“I’m not sure...”, Grian mumbled quietly, nervously glancing at the ceiling to the upper level, were the Convex would still be sitting. “We are just friends I think”

“Well… Me and Iskall are also your friends and we don’t have hot Architech orgies...”

Grian’s eyes widened and he looked at Mumbo like he had lost his mind. “I didn’t mean it like that! I just meant we aren’t dating. Well at least I’m not dating anyone. They are an item. Everybody knows that. I think I’m just there for some fun. A little thing to spice up their relationship. They are pretty happy with this arrangement.” Grian smiled, but Mumbo noticed that it didn’t quite reach his eyes at all.

Mumbo’s eyes narrowed, the embarrassing situation almost forgotten at the hint of sadness in Grian’s voice. The way he called himself a ‘thing’ made Mumbo shudder.

“But are you?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you happy?”

Grian’s smile slowly faded and he shrugged helplessly. 

“I guess… It’s better than nothing, isn’t it? What am I supposed to do? Tell them that the no-strings-attached-sex they wanted comes with a whole wool block of strings?”

“Yes you...” Mumbo started, but was interrupted by another voice.

“Yeah you totally should have told us.”

Grian tensed, his expression suddenly looked very panicked. He stared at Mumbo, not turning around at Scar who had just flown down the hole in the middle of the base and softly landed behind him.

“Grian...” Scar’s voice sounded so unsure, as if he didn’t know what to say himself.

Grian looked at Mumbo with pleading eyes and mouthed ‘help’ at him.

Mumbo sighed. He really had gotten into a messy situation that was starting to turn even worse.   
He walked past Grian to stand between him and Scar. He heard the flutter of an Elytra and Cub landed right next to Scar, looking confused.

“Okay...”, Mumbo started clearing out his throat. “I’m sorry that I happened to barge in, but what’s going on between you guys… Not really healthy if you ask me.”

Cub frowned and Scar looked outright angry. 

“What would you know about all of this?! You didn’t even know about us until a few minutes ago.”

“Well, I for one know that a Gentleman would never take someone to his bed without talking first.”

“We did”, Cub replied, putting a calming hand onto Scar’s shoulders, preventing him from answering first. “We told Grian what he would be getting into and he agreed to it. We are all consenting adults. You can’t fault us.”

“Oh watch me, Convex”, Mumbo spat out in annoyance. This was so utterly ridiculous. “Let me get this straight so all of you three idiots understand this. Grian likes both of you. You are making him feel like shit with this arrangement. It took me like a minute to figure that out. You must be freaking blind if you haven’t seen that. And you could have prevented this whole mess if you told him that you wanted a relationship and not just some steamy three-way!”

And finally… Finally Grian turned around and stepped out behind him, no longer looking scared but rather confused. “They… what?”

“Any idiot could see that the Convex like you. Well any idiot, except you apparently. You are all so perfect for each other. All too dumb to see that you are in love. Had I known what you were doing behind closed doors I would have intervened earlier.”

“Grian…?” The anger had faded from Scar’s face and he hesitantly stepped forward, putting a gentle hand onto Grian’s cheek to turn his face towards him. “Is that true? Are you…?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t want to tell you. I just thought that this…” Grian gestured between the three of them. “This was all I could get and I really wanted to be content with it. I really tried.”

“You should have told us”, Scar replied, eyes filled with pain.

Cub also stepped up, putting one hand around Scar’s hip and taking Grian’s hand with the other. “Scar… It’s our fault. We weren’t really truthful either”, he whispered to Scar before turning back to Grian. “I apologize, Grian. We should have asked you to join our relationship, before we asked you to join our bed.”

“So you really want me?” Grian sounded so uncertain and small it almost broke Mumbo’s heart. How long had this arrangement been going on? How long had his friend been hurting without him noticing? Scar and Cub looked just as sad as he felt.

“Grian…” They both started at the same time, stopping and looking at each other in silent conversation. And finally Scar continued. “We really like you. And if you’ll still have us after all of this we would be happy to have you be a part of our relationship.”

Grian’s whole face brightened, his eyes shining with tears of joy as he nodded hastily. “Are you sure about this? You won’t regret it later?”

Before answering, Cub pulled Grian forward into them and into one big embrace. “How could we ever regret falling in love with you?”

Mumbo stepped back a little and smiled at them fondly. As quietly as possible he turned around and left the base. Those three probably didn’t need him there any more. And he needed to prepare a stern talk for the Convex guys with Iskall.


	8. Full Moon

Relationship: Grian/Ren

The story is based on [THIS](https://gridoc.tumblr.com/post/190214714590/bro-im-a-sucker-for-hurtcomfort-in-general-but) picture

_________________________________

Grian laid on the soft grass, looking up at the blue sky. The smell of flowers was all around him and he could hear birds tweeting. He loved this part of being a Hippie. He seriously should have tried something like this way sooner. It was so relaxing after a stressful day of working. And the plus side was, he could always be close to his boyfriend. His eyes landed on Ren sitting on top of his RV, playing a few notes on his guitar and humming no song in particular to himself. This was perfect. Or as Impulse had said, the ‘Disgustingly sweet life of a freshly married couple’. And while they weren’t really married or anything like that, the living together thing, albeit temporary, was something new, that both of them enjoyed a lot.

Grian stretched and stood up as the sun started to get closer to the horizon, walking over to Ren, who stopped playing the instant he noticed him and jumped down from his RV.

“Hey, beautiful!”

Grian smiled, stepped up to his boyfriend and gave him a chaste kiss. “Hello there, Handsome.” He distantly heard a gagging sound from the direction of Impulse’s RV, but chose to ignore it. “So what do you say to a nice dinner? Stress taught me a really nice recipe and I thought I could try it tonight. We could even bust out some candles and make it really romantic.”

Ren’s smile faltered and he shook his head. “Sorry not today. It’s… not good. I need to be alone, you know. There’s a full moon tonight.”

  
Grian sighed and stepped back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He hated it when Ren disappeared once a month during the full moon without telling him anything at all. He had tried asking so often now but never gotten a satisfying answer. Depending on Ren’s mood he either got no answer at all, or was distracted with kisses. Only one time he had told Grian that it was dangerous during the full moon, but refused to give any further explanation.

Ren noticed his foul mood – he always did – and soon soft lips covered his. He opened his mouth begrudgingly at first, but soon got to enjoy his apology make out session. When they separated, both a little out of breath his mood had indeed gotten a little better.

“I’ll make it up to you. Let’s take tomorrow off. No building, no digging. We’ll lock the RV and rock the wheels.” Grian grinned at the idea.

There was another annoyed groan coming from Impulse’s RV. “Oh dear god. I’ll take tomorrow off then. Have fun guys! Don’t break the RV.”

They looked at Impulse and then at each other and laughed, everything else forgotten.

Everything was just perfect.

~*~

Grian loved their new world. He really did. But part of him missed the old place. Getting around had been so easy there. He had been able to see Ren every day and they had spend a lot of nights together. Now it took hours upon hours of rowing for one of them. It was their own fault that they had settled so far apart, but there was nothing you could do about that. They were both builders and once a builder fell in love with a spot, nothing could change that.

Grian swore to try and get an Elytra as soon as he was able to. Maybe he could ask his neighbour Scar for some help. But that had to wait for another day. At the moment Grian was busy collecting sand for his little Hobbit Hole. He really couldn’t carry a lot unfortunately and he hated it. He had to take so many trips to gather all the materials.

As he rowed back, the sun was already setting. He didn’t really fear the night, as long as there were no phantoms flying around. Wait… When was the last time he had slept in a bed? Damn, now that he thought about it, there was a high chance of phantoms spawning around him. Maybe it would be better to spend the night somewhere else. Or to find someone with a bed.

Grian took his communicator out and looked at the coordinates, a smile forming on his face. He was really close to Ren’s little island. Maybe he could go there and crash for the night.

<Grian> Hey Ren. I’m out on the ocean. High chance of phantoms. Can I crash at your place?

Grian waited for a few minutes, watching the setting sun and it’s reflection on the water. There was no answer. Their chat wasn’t really busy today at all. Most of them were working hard and not looking at their communicators.

<Grian> I’ll just come by. If you are not there, I’ll just use your bed. Feel free to join me ;)

Grian put his communicator away and got back to rowing. When he reached ‘Loser Island’ the sun’s last rays were already fading over the water. He had made it just in time. He tied his boat to the dock and went over to Pamela, petting the cow on its head and handing her a piece of wheat before continuing on to the hut.

“Ren?!”, he called out as he opened the door.

There was nobody inside.

“Ren you there?”, he called again. He heard a noise from down below were he knew Ren was working on his base and smiled. Without hesitation he jumped down the hole and landed with a splash in the water down below.

“Ren?”, he asked, looking around and getting out of the water. Damn this place had gotten huge since the last time he’d been here.

Before he could look around for his boyfriend his communicator gave of a series of beeps as a number of messages came in. Maybe Ren wasn’t here after all and had messaged him now.

He took out the communicator and looked at it.

<Docm77> Don’t go there, Grian!

<Docm77> Please answer me! Go somewhere else

<Docm77> Grian tell me you didn’t go. It’s dangerous!

Grian looked at the messages in confusion. What the hell was going on with Doc? He never spammed the chat like that. And what was he going on about?

<Grian> I’m already in his base’s lower level. What is going on, Doc?

There was nothing dangerous in Ren’s base. Sure, it was a little dark, but not dark enough for Mob’s to spawn. The torches lit the place up and the full moon was shining through the window. His communicator beeped again.

<Docm77> You idiot! Run! Get out! I’m coming!

Wait… The full moon? Grian raised his head from his communicator to look through the glass front, seeing the moon rise through the ocean water.

Hadn’t Ren told him to never ever visit him during a full moon? Was he up to something dangerous during that time?

There was a rustling sound behind him. Grian’s heart was beating frantically as he turned around. Something was moving slowly by the wall in the shadows.

“Ren? Is that you? This is not funny.”, he called to the shadow. There was a low growling sound and Grian jumped a little. “Ren…?”

The shadow moved a little and finally the torch light revealed it. Grian’s breath hitched, his eyes widened and fear grabbed his heart. The communicator dropped from his hands falling to the floor. At the other side of the room was a giant wolf with sharp teeth and huge claws and it was staring out of glowing red eyes directly at him.

He wanted to scream, but only a silent whimper left his mouth. That was no mob he had ever seen. It was huge, almost double Grian’s size. And he didn’t have his diamond sword with him.

The eyes of the creature were fixed on him. A tongue darted out of its mouth to lick over the glistening teeth, and finally Grian was able to move again. He tried to ignore the pains that came from a whole day of digging sand and sprinted towards the bubble elevator. He needed to get out of here. With its size the creature probably wouldn’t be able to follow him through the tight space.

But just as he had began moving the wolf started to run as well and it was faster than him. He needed to hurry up. He needed to get out of here. He didn’t want to die here.

He was almost there. He would make it. His hand already hit the water as he reached for it, when something hit him in the side, throwing him to the floor. He skidded over the rough stone for a few metres and then came to a halt, panting heavily. He hurt all over from the tackle and from the stone grating away his jumper and into his skin. He stood up on shaking legs, trying to ignore all the scratches. The wolf stood between him and the exit now. There was no way he could get out of here. This was the only exit. He could try to get out of the glass front if he was able to break it, but without any gear on him there was no way he’d be fast enough and the water pressure would be hard to fight any ways.

He tried not to move. Maybe it wouldn’t notice him. Maybe it wouldn’t go after him if he didn’t trigger its instincts.

The wolf kept its eyes on him and Grian’s heart kept beating faster and faster. He was seconds away from having a full on panic attack. His adrenalin was probably the only thing that kept him standing right now and not cowering in fear.

The wolf slowly crept closer and Grian took a few slow steps backwards, looking around for anything he could use as a weapon, but there was nothing. He grabbed one of the torches standing around, holding it out defensively in front of him. Maybe it would be scared of fire. He kept stepping further and further back, the creature following his every move.

And suddenly his back hit the wall. Panic rose inside of him and he hurriedly looked of to the side for a way to get out. That was when the creature jumped. Grian instinctively held the torch in front of his body. There was a howl of pain and the smell of burning hair in the air. The beast held a claw up to its shoulder and stared at Grian. It looked even more enraged than before

And then it pounced again in wild furry. Grian swung the torch in front of him, but one hit from the giant paw sent it flying.

Grian screamed as searing pain shot through his arm. Blood dripped down to the floor from three long gashes the claws had left on his arm. Tears formed in his eyes. He would die here. Doc wouldn’t make it in time. That monster would kill him.

In his panic Grian darted off to the side, stumbling a little. He needed to get away. He didn’t want to die here. And why wasn’t Ren here to help him out? Why was a monster running around in his basement?

Something heavy hit his back and Grian fell, rolling over the stone and coming to a painful halt on his back. If he survived this his whole body would be littered in bruises and scratches.

He hurried to get up, but the giant paws of the beast were suddenly standing on his shoulders. It was lowering its mouth, sharp teeth ready, mouth wide open. Grian raised his arms to push it away, trying to frantically grab anywhere to get it away. It didn’t work. The wolf growled and suddenly Grian’s arm was in its mouth. It was about to bite down and probably take his whole hand off. Then their eyes locked. Grian could see his face reflected in the red eyes. His terrified face full of tears and for a second the red started to flicker, turning into a soft blue. Blue like the sky. Blue like the eyes of…

“Ren…?”

The beast seemed to hesitate and Grian pulled his hand back to safety, away from the sharp teeth.

“Ren is that you?” He felt the pressure fading a little from his shoulders and dared to hope again. He didn’t understand whatever was happening right now, but somehow in some way Ren had turned into this… this wolf monster. And he was coming to his senses. Maybe he was recognizing Grian.

“It’s alright Ren. Everything is okay. Okay? I’m sorry I came over. Don’t do this”, Grian whispered. His words seemed to have an effect on the creature. He just needed to keep talking. Keep it distracted.

“I… I love you, Ren…” One of the giant paws slid off of Grian’s shoulder and he decided to take the opportunity. He hurriedly rolled to the side and got up. That turned out to be a bad idea. The blue eyes instantly turned red again and the beast was growling in anger. Grian wanted to run, but he soon stumbled and then felt sharp claws piercing right through his shoulders. He fell to the ground again, breathing heavily. It was over. He wouldn’t get away this time. He was hurting everywhere. He could feel the warm breath of the wolf right next to his ear as its mouth moved to his neck.

He prepared for the worst, when he heard a loud splash of water.

“Stay down!” A voice shouted. Something flew right over his head and the creature howled in pain.

Grian turned his head to look back. A trident was embedded right in the wolves upper body, blood staining the fur red. It stumbled back a few steps, its eyes flickering between red and blue. The trident ripped itself out of his body again as if by magic and it fell to the ground. It took a few more shaking breaths, trying to get up again, growling dangerously. Again a trident flew, this time hitting its lower abdomen. It struggled to stay upright and took one more shaking step, before it fell down one final time and stopped moving.

“R-Ren…? REN!”

Grian tried to get up, but a warm hand on his back kept him from moving and he looked at Doc who was kneeling next to him, bloody trident in his mechanical arm.

“It’s okay, Grian…”

“Nothing is okay!” There were tears gathering in Grian’s eyes now. He just felt the tension of this whole ordeal all at once becoming too much. “You killed him! That was Ren and you killed him!”

“I know, but…”

“You knew?!” Grian almost shouted, wincing at the pain it caused in his shoulder. “Why? Doc, if you knew that was Ren, why did you do it?”

“You need to calm down, Grian, man…”, he said calmingly, put down the trident after one last look at the wolf and then carefully turned Grian around to get him into a sitting position. “Look.”

Grian followed his instructions and saw the wolf’s fur moving a little as low breaths were still leaving its mouth. “Is he… Will he...?”

“He will be okay. He is one tough guy in that form. And I know how to aim. I just did enough damage to stop him. He will be fully healed once the full moon is gone, don’t worry. He always transforms back without any injuries. No one is dead. And it looks like he didn’t get to bite you. He didn’t right?”

Grian shook his head and Doc let out a sigh of relief. “Good. He would never forgive himself if he turned you as well.”

“What… turned me into what…? Is he a… Werewolf? But they don’t exist. That is just a fairy tale.”

“Well before they multiplied like crazy, people thought phantoms were just a fairy tale and now they are everywhere…” Doc sighed and looked over to where Ren’s body was still lying. “It should be up to him to explain this to you. I told him so many times that you should know what he was. He was so scared you would leave him and look where that got him. He almost bit you. That fool.”

“He is a fool… But I love him even at his worst… He should know that.” Grian smiled sadly and tried to shrug, but the pain in his shoulder almost had him doubling over. Doc’s hand was the only thing that kept him up.

“Can you stand up? Should I call Xisuma to teleport us to a safer place?”

Grian shook his head. He didn’t want to get Xisuma involved. It was his own fault he was in this situation. “I’ll manage…”

Grian managed to slowly get up with Doc’s hand steadying him. Doc was constantly looking him up and down a worried expression on his face. “You don’t really look to good.”

“’m fine…”, Grian mumbled, swaying a little. His face was as white as a sheet of paper. How much blood had he lost? There weren’t too many wounds on his body, but those cuts seemed to be pretty deep. He took a shaking step towards the exit, but stumbled and hadn’t it been for Doc holding him up, he would have fallen to the ground again.

“Stupid stubborn fools, both of you”, he mumbled, his communicator in hand. Grian could distantly hear the sound of typing and beeping, as if he was under water. He couldn’t think clearly. Everything around him started to sway. And then everything around him disappeared and they suddenly stood in a brightly lit room. He was rushed over to a bed. Xisuma was standing there looking at him worriedly. Oh… So they had transported him to Xisuma’s place.

He wanted to say something, but his vision started to fade and he suddenly felt so tired. He couldn’t keep his eyes open and slowly drifted out of consciousness. Maybe he would wake up and realise all this had been just a nightmare.

In his dreams he was haunted by glowing red eyes. The wolf was always right next to him no matter where he went. He was suddenly back in the cave below Ren’s base, the wolf above him. But this time there was no trident flying through the air. No Doc to rescue him. He felt the sharp teeth bite into his neck and screamed.

He screamed and screamed, hands were on him at once and he heard voices talking to him. Slowly but surely he gained a sense of his surroundings. He was in Xisuma’s bed. There was no wolf. It was bright and the sun was shining through the windows and someone was holding his hand.

A little out of breath he looked at Xisuma who was gently holding his hand, his helmet abandoned in a corner of the room.

“’suma…?”

“Yeah. You alright, Grian? You had a nightmare.”

“So it wasn’t real?”, he asked, still a little dazed, but the pity in Xisuma’s eyes made him realise how stupid that question was. Of course it had been real. Why else would he be in Xisuma’s bed of all places? And he still hurt all over. He looked down at his arm. It was tightly wrapped in a bandage. The white fabric was stained dark red in some places.

And suddenly he realised it was morning and Doc’s words came back to him. “Ren! Where is he? Is he alright? I need to...”, he hurriedly tried to get up, but Xisuma gently pushed him back into the mattress.

“Don’t strain yourself”, he mumbled then turned around and stepped away from the bed. “Ren, get over here. You heard him.”

Grian heard some rustling in the corner of the room and finally he saw Ren slowly stepping up to his bed. Why hadn’t he been next to him this whole time?

“Ren…” Ren looked bad. He wouldn’t raise his head to look at Grian. His eyes were red and puffy and there were still tear tracks on his face. His whole posture just screamed Insecurity. “Ren, babe… Look at me, please.”

Finally Ren raised his head and their eyes met. He could see tears shining in Ren’s eyes. “Grian… I am so sorry. I never wanted to hurt you. I promise. I just… I can’t control the wolf. I tried to stop it. I really did. I was so scared. I’d understand if you don’t want to be with me any more.”

Grian shock his head and slowly raised his non bandaged arm to rest a hand on Ren’s cheek. “It’s alright. Nothing bad happened. I’m okay. And I still love you.”

Xisuma sighed next to them and put down a few clean bandages onto the bed. “I’ll give you guys a little privacy. Ren, He needs a change of bandages. I trust you to take care of that. Talk it out you two. I’ll be back later.”

Grian noticed that Ren looked a little panicked at Xisuma’s retreating back and he opened his mouth, as if he wanted to say something. Maybe he wanted to stop Xisuma. As the door fell closed, Ren even flinched a little, head hanging low again.

“You don’t want to be alone with me?”, Grian asked sadly, noticing all the signs.

Ren looked finally looked back at him, eyes wide with shock, shaking his head. “I thought you wouldn’t want to be. I thought you might get scared after I attacked you.”

Grian huffed in mild annoyance. “If I didn’t want to be alone with you I would have told Xisuma. We have been alone thousand of times, haven’t we.”

“Yeah but I attacked you…”

“Right. You attacked me. Once. When you weren’t even yourself. We have been together almost every night since the last season. Percentage wise I think I have a good chance to be safe alone with you.” Grian slowly got into a sitting position, wincing a little at the pain, but unlike Xisuma, Ren made no move to stop him. He grabbed Ren and pulled him into a hug. It hurt, sure, it hurt like hell. But seeing Ren like that, seeing him blame himself for everything that happened, that hurt even more.

“It’s okay. We are okay. It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known I’d be there.” He felt Ren’s hand hesitantly wrapping around him and Grian almost melted into the embrace. “I love you. And I’ll always love you, even if you transform into some monster wolf, I’ll still love you.”

  
Ren was shaking now and Grian felt something wet on his shoulders. He carefully petted Ren’s back with his unbandaged hand, trying to calm him down. “It’s okay… Everything is fine…”, he continued to whisper words of comfort until he felt Ren calming down. They still stayed there for a while, neither of them ready to let go.

Until Grian moved a little and pain shot through his arm. A pained whine escaped him and Ren let go of him as if he’d burned himself. “I’m sorry. Oh god, Gri, I’m so sorry. Look at me. I’m a mess and you are the one that got hurt. I should be the one to care for you not the other way around.”

“Don’t worry, it’s…”

“No. It’s not okay. Stop saying that. I know you want to reassure me, but I have a right to worry about you. You are hurt.” Ren picked up the clean bandage. “I need to make it up to you, even if you don’t see that. You might be okay, but I… I’m not okay yet.”

Grian didn’t dare to say anything. He wanted to make Ren forget about what happened, but he understood where Ren was coming from. It was probably easier to forgive someone else than to forgive yourself. So he just nodded and held out his wounded arm.

Gently Ren peeled of the bloody bandage. Grian averted his eyes, not ready to see the damage the attack had caused.

“I owe you an explanation, I think”, Ren began and Grian just shrugged. “No, Gri, I really do. I should have told you a long time ago. Doc was always pestering me about it. I guess he was right. If you had known you would have paid more attention to the moon.”

“Tell me then… Whatever you are comfortable with.”

Ren smiled sadly, putting the bloody bandages to the side and taking a washing cloth from the bedside table. He dabbed it gently against the wound. It stung like hell, but Grian tried not to show any discomfort as Ren began explaining.

“I was still young when it happened. It was long before I came to Hermitcraft. I got lost in a forest looking for… I don’t even know what I was looking for any more. It was stupid to go out alone that late. It was a full moon. That huge wolf suddenly appeared in front of me. I tried to run away, but it was just too fast. It bit me. It probably would have killed me. But I was lucky. Someone had noticed my screams and chased the monster off. I thought I was lucky. Until the next full moon came and I transformed. It hurts… It hurts every time. All the bones in your body shifting, your skin stretching out. But the worst thing is not how it feels but the way you lose all control. I was never able to control myself.”

“But you did...”, Grian whispered, thinking back to last night, when his arm had been in the wolf’s mouth, about to be bitten. “Your eyes. They turned blue and you didn’t… you stopped.”

Ren smiled sadly and nodded. “That was the first time I managed to do this. And even though… even when I love you this much I wasn’t able to stay in control. I tried so hard...”

Ren took a shaky breath, quietly put the wash cloth away and started carefully bandaging the arm again. “I’m glad Doc was there. Even if he almost killed me... I once told him if worst comes to worst he has my permission to kill me. I’d rather die then see anything happen to you.”

“Well and I’d rather be bitten than see you die. So I’ll have a talk with Doc about that agreement”, Grian replied with an annoyed huff and while Ren looked like he wanted to argue he held back. He probably knew that Grian wouldn’t change his mind on that matter.

Ren kept bandaging up his arm, then paused and looked straight into Grian’s eyes, gaze full of worry. “Just… Never visit me during the full moon ever again. Promise me that you’ll be careful. If I were to bite you, I’d never forgive myself.”

Grian averted his eyes. Ren wasn’t the only one who felt guilty about this whole ordeal. If he had just paid attention to the moon… If he hadn’t stayed out so late… If he had waited patiently for an answer instead of just barging in… If he had…

“Grian. Stop it.”

“’m not doing anything…”, Grian mumbled quietly, turning his eyes back to Ren.

  
“You are blaming yourself, when I am the only one to blame. I can see it in your eyes.”

“Well… If I’m not allowed to blame myself, then neither are you!”

Ren shook his head, about to answer again, but Grian wouldn’t let him. “No. You listen to me, Mr. Ren. You had no control. You told me enough times that you can’t see me during a full moon. So what? Yeah, you maybe should have told me you are a werewolf after two years of dating, but whatever.” Grian looked back to Ren again, nothing but love in his eyes. “It will take me a while to get over this, sure. I will feel bad about it and so will you, but we can pull through it. Don’t you ever doubt that.”

Ren lowered his eyes and finished bandaging Grian’s arm. But for the first time since Grian had woken up there was a small smile on his lips. And Grian knew at that moment that they would be alright.


	9. Pick-Up Lines

Relationship: Grian/Doc

_________________________________

Loud music was blaring from the speakers. Cheerful voices filled the air. It was their last night in this world. Everyone was ready to pack up and head for Season 7 so they had all gathered up in Hermitville for a little party. There was food, music, dancing and alcohol… Lots of alcohol.

Grian grinned as he poured himself another drink. He was feeling a little warm and slightly buzzed and so freaking high on endorphins. This was the first time he jumped world’s with the others and it would be so exciting!

„Griaaaan” A heavily drunk Iskall shouted, swaying in front of him and putting a hand on his shoulders to steady himself, almost throwing Grian down by that. „My dude! My Man! My Dragon-Bro! Did I ever tell you how much I lo~ove you?!“

Grian laughed at that, gently patting Iskall’s arm. That guy sure was getting overly emotional when drunk, but Grian found it amusing. „Yeah you did. About a hundred times tonight. You are drunk.“

„Doesn’t make it any less true. I love you, man!“

„Don’t make Mister Jumbo too jealous. I don’t want to wake up in a scary Redstone trap if he hears your confession.“

Iskall laughed, stumbling a little but catching himself again. „Oh Grian, he knows, everyone knows! We both love you. You are the crazy little brother we both never wanted.“

„Hey!“, Grian pouted. „I’m not that crazy. I bet there are still some crazier things I haven’t done… yet.“

Iskall’s eyes practically started glowing and he was looking at Grian expectantly. „Soooo. You up for a little challenge? Some last crazy act to finish of this season with a bang?“

Grian shrugged but grinned mischievously. „What have you got in mind?“

Iskall looked around, probably still searching for whatever he deemed crazy enough. Well in his drunken state it would either be something really easy or something impossible. But if it made him happy, Grian would gladly go along with it. And he might get a little fun out of it.

Finally Iskall found something that inspired him and he pointed at Doc who was sitting at a bar they had build just for this party. „You know… I never ever saw Doc flirt. I want you to use the worst pick up lines you ever heard on him. And don’t dare stop until he is really annoyed. I want to see it working from over here.“

Grian’s grin widened, mind already working at high speed. „Alright, alright. But if he kills me, it’s your fault and you’ll have to go collect all of my stuff.”

Grian downed his drink, handed the glass to Iskall and sauntered over to the bar, sliding up next to Doc, leaning onto the bar. Doc turned to him and simply raised an eyebrow. He didn’t look intoxicated at all. Grian wondered if it was easier to get him angry or harder this way. He’d just do his best… or well, his worst.

„Say, Doc, are you a time traveller? Because I see you in my future!“

Doc frowned in confusion and shook his head. „You are the only time traveller here and I’m pretty sure you destroyed that abomination of yours. At least I hope you did. Don’t want a repeat of that fiasco.”

Well… Maybe that one wasn’t obvious enough. He really needed to get more creative. Well as creative as one could get with reusing stupid pick up lines that everyone had heard before. Well apparently everyone except Doc.

“You know… That coat looks good on you. As a matter of fact, so would I.” Grian looked at Doc, giving him a little wink. 

What happened next was something Grian would have never expected. Doc looked startled, a blush slowly spreading over his face.“W-What…? Grian?”

Oh that was an interesting reaction. Now there was really no way to stop. “I mean. I was feeling Off the whole day. But then, you showed up and turned me on.”

Doc’s cheeks got even redder, his eyes going so impossibly wide it would put Keralis to shame. Grian couldn’t help but think that he looked kind of cute this flustered. He had never before seen this side. Maybe Doc was a little bit more drunk than it seemed. But whatever the reason, Grian liked it. It did funny things to his heart he wasn’t ready to think about in his drunken state.

“That is not really funny. You shouldn’t joke around like that.”

“But I’m not joking. I just… There must be something wrong with my eyes. I can’t seem to take them off you.” Grian tried to look serious. He really did. It took all his willpower not to laugh out loud. Doc’s face was just priceless. The tips of his ears were even starting to become red and he looked so flustered. Might as well go in for the kill.   
“So…” He looked Doc up and down slowly, licking his lips. Even if it wasn’t for his joking around he had to admit that Doc was indeed looking quite nice. “You seem like a hard worker. I’ve got an opening you can fill.”

There was a split second of confusion before Doc got what he meant by that. He opened his mouth a few times, making a few confused sounds, before he finally stood up from his spot. “No… No, no, no…”, he mumbled, turning away from Grian and hurrying away without a further word. Before he left the area though he glanced back over his shoulder to the bar and… Was that longing Grian saw in his eyes?

Before he could linger any more on that thought Iskall slid up to him again, this time being held upright by Mumbo, who looked rather confused. “What was that about?”, he asked at the same time as Iskall exclaimed: “That was hilarious!”

Grian grinned at the compliment and shrugged. “Not really the reaction I expected though. Those were the most basic pick up lines one could think of. I expected an eye roll and annoyance at best. He might be more innocent than we thought.”

“You did what?” Mumbo seemed appalled and Grian knew this meant they were going to get scolded like little children again. Damn, he hated when that happened. 

“It was just a joke, honey!”, Iskall whined, hanging off of Mumbo, looking at him with huge puppy dog eyes. A look that was really strange to see on a bearded grown man. And Iskall definitely couldn’t pull it off, no matter how hard he tried.

“A joke?!”

“Well… I wasn’t even really flirting. It was just… Some dumb lines. Everybody has heard something like that before. It’s not that bad.” Grian defended himself. He hated it when Mumbo was displeased with them.

Mumbo sighed and shook his head. He looked like he was talking to little children. Well maybe they had behaved a little that way. “It’s not my place to say anything, but I don’t think your joke was very funny. Doc… He isn’t used to that kind of attention from you. He might misinterpret something. Maybe tomorrow when you got all the alcohol out of your system you should talk to him again. And maybe don’t drink so much at the next party. The booze must have killed your one and only braincell.”

Grian nodded, if only to get Mumbo off of his case. And it really seemed to work.

“Now excuse me. I need to care for my idiot boyfriend who got too wasted to be able to walk…”

Iskall perked up and looked at Mumbo with wide disappointed eyes. “You have a boyfriend? What a lucky dude to have the prettiest guy on the server to himself. I’m so jealous.” Iskall slurred his words already and Mumbo looked at him with a mixture of annoyance and fondness. 

“Let’s get going, sweetheart.”

“Wait I am your boyfriend?! Oh man, so lucky…”

Grian looked after them with a smile on his lips, before he turned back to the bar, still pondering Mumbo’s words. He hadn’t said anything that bad. It had just been a joke… It was funny, wasn’t it?

The next morning Grian awoke with a headache. He groaned, looking around his weird monstrosity of a house and sighed when he couldn’t find anything to drink He really should have slept in the RV, but flying with an Elytra while drunk was never a good idea and his build battle house had been closer.  
Grumbling he went outside to get something to drink. Maybe he’d walk over to the Hippie Camp. A bit of fresh air would be good for him. He didn’t walk far, when he saw Doc just outside of Hermitville. Mumbo’s words came back to him and he sighed. Well maybe he really should talk to him.

“Hey, Doc, you got a second?”, he called and the other seemed to tense up before slowly turning around and waiting for him to catch up.

“Listen, about yesterday. I’m sorry. It was just a stupid dare from Iskall. I shouldn’t have done it. I really regret what I said.”

Doc nodded, face still unreadable. “It’s alright. You were probably drunk. Just… Don’t ever do it again.” Doc’s voice was flat but Grian thought he heard a hint of some emotion. Was it sadness? Annoyance? He just couldn’t put his finger on it and it unnerved him.

“I won’t. We both were a little out of it. I should have stopped when you were bothered, but I mean the way you were blushing was really cute. I could get used to seeing you that drunk more often…”, Grian joked, trying to lighten the mood, but his smile disappeared when he saw the same blush as the night before appearing on Doc’s face. 

“I wasn’t… I didn’t drink.”

No way… Oh god… He really needed to resist the urge to do this, but he just couldn’t hold back. He really really couldn’t and he was probably going to regret this later. But he was still hung over and he couldn’t think too much about it.

“Hey… you… You must be exhausted… Because you’ve been running through my mind all night.” Grian watched in curious entertainment as Doc’s cheeks filled with colour. But contrary to last night he didn’t look flustered, but a little more annoyed.

“Grian… Didn’t we just agree to…”

“Yeah we did. But I just needed to test out a theory. So one more and then I’m done I promise…”

Doc rolled his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest defensively. But Grian knew now. He knew why Mumbo had told him that their joke had been a bad idea. He knew now why it was supposed to be Doc’s place to tell him why. He finally understood… And strangely enough he was really happy about that. Maybe that’s why his heart was beating so hard right now.

“Kiss me if I’m wrong, but yesterday meant nothing to you, right?”

“Grian… Stop joking around…”

“It’s not a joke.”

Doc mumbled something in German, taking a few steps to close the distance between them. They were so close now, Grian could feel warm breath on his skin. 

“You sure it’s not? Won’t be funny later if you want to continue joking.”

Grian swallowed. He finally felt his face growing warm and he just knew he was blushing as well. He had never thought about this. Hell, yesterday it had seemed like a funny joke and nothing more. He had never thought about Doc in that way. But now? Well something had changed between them and he really liked the change.

“Just so you know”, he started, staring straight into Doc’s eyes, a smirk on his face, “My lips won’t just kiss themselves.”

Finally he got to see Doc smile as well, but he didn’t get to see it for long, because their lips almost smashed together in a heated kiss.

He’d really have to thank Iskall later…


	10. Let's get down to Business

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scar/Grian/Cub

Grian stood inside the Concorp Club and looked around a little hesitant. Sure, he had been officially invited and Mumbo and Iskall had both urged him to go to maybe find out some secrets, but it still felt weird, like he didn't belong here. He didn't even know why they had explicitly stated that they'd only talk to him in matter of business. Sure, he was the CEO of the company, but it was no secret, that he really wasn't really that knowledgeable in the way Sahara worked. And he'd need his partners okay before proposing any deals. All he was good for was doing advertising campaigns and causing chaos. 

"Grian! So nice to see you!"  
Grian turned around and froze. Scare was walking up to him, wearing swimming trunks, a coat loosely draped over his shoulders. He was looking over the rim of his sunglasses and smiling warmly. Grian couldn't help himself but let his gaze travel over the sun-kissed skin, feeling the heat rising to his cheeks. Oh yeah and that was the other thing, that let him have no confidence in holding this meeting instead of Mumbo or Iskall. His dumb ass had managed not to fall for one, but two of their competitors at the same time. How was he supposed to concentrate on anything if all he could think about was kissing Scar or Cub or both? And why the hell was Scar dressed like that? That made it even less possible to concentrate. He suddenly felt way too overdressed in his suit.

"Scar?", he squeaked out, his voice unnaturally high. He cleared his throat before continuing to speak. "I thought you wanted to have a meeting with me. This doesn't look like business attire."

Scar stopped walking and looked at him in confusion. "Meeting? Business? What are you talking about?"

Oh god. Had Mumbo and Iskall been playing a joke on him? Maybe he hadn't been invited over here after all and was trespassing. But why would Scar have been so happy to see him if that were the case? He hadn’t just looked happy but completely delighted. What was going on here?

"The letter you guys sent to Sahara. You guys had important stuff to talk about concerning our relationship and wanted me to come over so we could talk about it. It sounded so formal, I thought it was something important. Please tell me it was really you who sent the letter."

Scar looked annoyed now, taking off his sunglasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose. "No it wasn't me."

Grian felt his heart sink, but before he could turn around to leave, forgetting this ever happened, Scar continued speaking. "Why did I let him talk me into letting him write that? Why didn't I read it again?", Scar muttered disgruntled and then raised his voice. "Cub, honey?! Get your ass out here, now! Dinner will have to wait!"

There was clanging of pans and a few seconds later, Cub stepped out, the sleeves of his shirt were rolled up and he was wearing an apron, obviously coming straight out of the kitchen. Oh god, Grian must have interrupted their date time by the looks of it. 

"I'm... I'm sorry. I guess", Grian said hurriedly. He had no clue what was going on at the moment. He only knew that he had done something really wrong. "I shouldn't have come here. I should have checked in with you first! I didn't want to bother you and-"

Scar held up a hand in his direction, making him shut up at once with just one look. "We are not done here. I'll get to you once I'm done with my stupid ass husband." With that Scar had already turned back to Cub, folding his arms in front of his body, tapping his foot onto the floor impatiently. "Care to explain why Grian is here, thinking we are about to have a business meeting? What the hell did you do? The instructions I gave to you were pretty clear. How could you mess this up?"

Cub looked from Scar to Grian and back again, realisation dawning on his face and he looked at Scar almost sheepishly. "I think, I might have phrased our request a little too formally."

"You think? Look at him!" Scar gestured in Grian's direction, sounding absolutely pissed at his husband. But the gesture made Grian look down at himself. He had felt pretty good about the way he had dressed up until now. He had been so ready to show them his serious business side and make Mumbo and Iskall proud of him. He might have also hoped that those two would appreciate the way he looked – maybe even call him good looking. But it had just been a stupid fantasy after all and reality was catching up to him now. "This is an absolute disaster, Cub! It is the worst way this could have gone! You ruined the evening!"

Grian let his gaze fall to the floor and sighed. This was dumb. He clearly wasn't welcome here. Why did he even stay? Would Scar yell at him as well for misunderstanding what Cub wrote? What else had that letter even been for if it wasn't about them having a business meeting?

"You are overreacting, honey." Cub's voice was calm, but Grian could hear the strain in it. "It's not the end of the world. It's just a misunderstanding."

"Something like that shouldn't have happened! He shouldn't be here thinking we are having some dumb business meeting! If I had known it would end like that, I would have written the letter."

Grian took a step back, feeling so small under the weight of Scar's words. He had been right all along. He shouldn't have come here. Mumbo and Iskall would have probably handled this better. They would know what to say in a situation like this and still turn it into something profitable. Grian didn't know what to do or say. He had been looking forward to this and now? With every other hermit he probably would have made he joke, but he seemed to be unable to find any funny words right now.

"Oh yeah?" Cub raised his voice a little now too. It was like Grian didn't exist anymore. Maybe Scar wouldn't notice if he left. But then again if he tried, he might direct his anger at Grian. "And what would you have written? Something really crude that would have him running before we even started? You would have ruined any chances for us. I at least got him to come over."

"Because he thinks we are going to have a meeting! Fuck you, Cub. The last thing I want to do is talk business with someone like Grian."

And that did it. Grian suddenly felt so numb, but he wouldn't let that get to him. He suddenly stood straight, raising his head and standing tall and proud. He didn't have to take this. They had no right to talk about him like that. He wouldn’t just stand here and take that beating.

"I'll leave now. You two keep fighting without me. Apparently I'm the last person you'd want to have around. Sorry for bothering you with my presence.”

Scar and Cub were startled at his cold voice and looked at him wide-eyed, almost as if they had forgotten about his presence. 

"Grian..." Scar took a step in his direction at the same time as Grian took a step back. "Don't leave, Grian. I didn't mean it like that."

Grian laughed, but it sounded hollow in his own ears. Damn if he had his Elytra on he would have been already high in the sky and away, but no he had left that home in favour of his outfit looking nice. Had him hoping for even one tiny compliment from them been too much to ask for?

"From now on please refrain from contacting me. Do all of your business with Mumbo and Iskall", Grian replied, doing his best to keep the pain out of his voice. But who could blame him? He had always enjoyed Scar and Cub's company, even when they were on opposing sites in the Shopping District. Every time they were nice to him he could dream about their relationship turning into something more.

Scar turned to look at Cub with a panicked expression, but Grian turned around. He didn't care. He just wanted to leave with the dignity he had left. Maybe go straight to Mumbo’s place and cry his eyes out. 

The second he reached the exit of the Club an iron gate lowered down, blocking his way out. He turned around again and glared at Cub who had his hand on a lever.

"Are you two serious?" Grian looked at them, fury in his eyes. "First you make it pretty clear that you don't want me here, and now you don't want to let me leave?"

"We want you here!", Scar protested, hurrying up to Grian, his robe slipping of his shoulders and lying in the dust. Grian kept his eyes focused on that piece of fabric. He crossed his hands in front of his body. He didn't want to be here anymore. He just wanted to leave.

"Grian, please."

There was a sigh and more steps and then Cubs voice, so calm again, spoke up. "I know my dear husband can sometimes be... a bit over the top. He is a little diva-" There was an annoyed huff by Scar, but Cub chose to ignore it "-but he really didn't mean it that way. And he is right. It is kind of my fault that there was a misunderstanding."

There was a hand on Grian's shoulder, he flinched and the hand retreated again at once. "Grian..." Scar sounded so hurt that Grian couldn't help himself but look up again into Scar's face. His eyes were wide and filled with sadness and guilt. "I'm really sorry. I just... I was nervous all day and looking forward to this and I kind of got carried away there. Let's just say this is not what I imagined to happen."

"Well neither did I...", Grian grumbled "And I still don't get what it's all about."

Scar sighed before muttering quietly. "I knew I should have been the one to write the letter."

"Don't start again, honey."

"Yes, yes. But if I had written it there would have been no misunderstandings! I would have just flat out told him that we want to fuck him."

Grian's eyes widened and he felt frozen in place, his brain almost unable to compute the words he just heard. Had Scar said what Grian thought he had?

"Scar!", Cub protested, "Don't say it like that! That's why I wrote that damn letter! You would have created a whole other misunderstanding."

"But it's just the truth."

They kept on bickering, right in front of Grian, but Grian wasn't listening anymore. He just couldn't think clearly. The only thing inside his head was what Scar had said. This meeting hadn't been about business at all. They had invited him over for... For what? To have sex with him. So him agreeing to this made them think he was interested. No wonder Scar had been so annoyed. No wonder he had been dressed like that when Grian had come. He had been expecting pleasure and Grian had come for business.

"I'd still like to leave.", Grian finally spoke up quietly, interrupting their bickering. Both of them stopped and looked at him and Scar wasn't really able to hide his disappointment as well as Cub.

"That's... That's perfectly fine. Sorry you had to come over all the way for this."

Grian nodded and he looked at the ground once more, unable to look them into their faces. A little voice inside kept telling him to accept the offer. He'd never have a chance like that again. That was his one shot to feel loved by the guys he had a crush on. For one night – for this one time – he could pretend that they were in love with him, that they wanted him to be part of their marriage.

"But thanks I guess. For liking me enough to invite me into your bedroom, I guess. I'm just... You guys are nice and amazing, but I just don't think..." Grian could hear his voice crack and he cleared his throat before continuing on. "I'm not really interested in casual hook-ups like that."

"See. Told you, you would cause misunderstandings too, babe."

Grian looked at Cub in confusion who just chuckled a gentle smile on his face that got Grian to feel a warm sensation in his chest.

"Grian. We want no business meetings and no hook up. Me and Scar want you to join our relationship. This was supposed to be a date."

Grian's heart started racing like crazy all of the sudden. His face felt unbelievably hot. "W-what?", he asked, a stuttering mess.

Scar now smiled as well and it made his whole face look even more handsome. "We like you, Grian. Both of us. When you said you'd come over, we thought you might be interested in us as well. It's okay if you are not. I mean... I guess I reacted a little badly back there. I just was disappointed and-"

Grian didn't let Scar finish that sentence, grabbing him and pulling him into a kiss. It was soft and didn't last long. When Grian broke the kiss he turned his head to look at Cub and amazingly enough Cub seemed to understand what he wanted, because he came closer and pressed his lips to Grian's. It only took a few seconds for Grian to be embraced into two pair of arms and he had never felt better about it.

"I guess that makes your answer to our proposal pretty clear", Cub muttered jokingly and Grian couldn't help but giggle.

"I accept. And by that I mean, I'd like to try the dating thing. I... I've had a crush on the two of you for the longest time, I just never thought it would come to anything." 

Scar made a cooing noise and Grian blushed even harder. They let him out of the embrace only for Scar to take his hand and pull him to the table at the side of the pool. Grian smiled brightly, taking off his blazer and throwing it to the side. 

And when he sat between Cub and Scar, both looking at him with loving gazes, he couldn’t think of a more perfect moment than this.


	11. Red And Green

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grian/Doc  
> Fluff  
> Betaread by the amazing Aaronampora

Based on [this amazing image](https://gridoc.tumblr.com/post/623021865101852672/what-if-we-went-to-the-festival-together)  
  
  
  
Doc stood in front of the giant door to Grian’s base, waiting for the lord of the house to arrive. He tugged a little on the front of his clothes, trying to loosen them. He rarely wore anything constricting. Sure he had worn a suit a few times and this was far more comfortable, but still a long way from his loose labcoat that wasn’t even covering his chest. 

  
He knew that Grian had told him not to bother and that he could go to the festival casually dressed, but he also knew seeing him in this light cotton kimono - yukata, Ren had called it when handing it to Doc - would make Grian really happy. And Grian being happy was far more important than him being comfortable.

  
  


The doors opened and Doc looked up with a smile, his whole face lighting up when he saw Grian. While Doc was more dressed than usual the yukata was far more revealing on Grian than his red sweater. Doc tried very pointedly not to look at the white skin of Grian’s chest peeking out below the green fabric.

  
  


“Doc! You wore one!”, Grian said in delight, jumping up a little in joy and hugging Doc enthusiastically. Doc could feel his heart racing and he put his arms softly around Grian in return.

  
  


“Ren told me that this was appropriate attire for our date”, he replied flatly, but Grian giggled as if he had just cracked a joke.

  
  


“Oh you big sap. Don’t blame this on Ren. I bet you wanted to match.” Grian leaned back a bit, his arms still around Doc, as he took in Doc’s appearance. “Red really suits you. You should wear it more often.”

  
  


Doc chuckled. “Well, dear, green also looks very good on you. There really should be more green things. All. Over. You.” Doc pulled Grian back and Grian made a cute squeal that was swallowed by Doc’s lips. Grian let out a tiny whimper, but pressed himself against Doc, hands flying up to his head, pulling him down further. When they broke apart both of them were flushed and a little out of breath.

The way Grian smiled up at him, his whole face glowing made Doc’s heart beat faster and he leaned in again for a small peck. He would have gladly continued just making out, but they didn’t dress up to stand around. But Grian did look rather nice in those clothes and the way he was looking at Doc, cheeks a soft red...

  
  


“X will have the portal ready for us in about ten minutes. We should really head over now or we won’t make it on time”, Doc murmured, still not letting go of Grian, who nodded but didn’t step back as well, just gazing longingly into Doc’s eyes. Doc wanted to resist the temptation. He really tried. But instead of moving away, his body leaned in again and his lips moved down to meet Grian’s once more.

  
  


When they arrived at Xisuma’s place in the nether the admin was looking at them impatiently. The portal next to him was already glowing a bright yellow, showing that it was leading out of this world.

  
  


“You guys do know I have better things to do than wait around a dumb portal for half an hour? I got my own date to get to”, Xisuma greeted them in an annoyed tone and Doc almost felt bad. He mostly felt bad because it would be really hard to convince X to open a portal the next time they wanted to go on a fancy outside date.

  
  


“Sorry, X. You know how things are”, Grian said with a small smile, “I got so lost in building I forgot to get ready for our date and made Doc wait. I bet your boyfriend does the same sometimes. We builders are all so forgetful.”

  
  


Xisuma sighed again, but the annoyed look eased off a little and he smiled more fondly, probably thinking of the person waiting for him at home.

  
  


“Well go on through then. I’ll reopen it when you message me. Have fun you two and don’t get lost.”

  
  


Doc nodded and pulled Grian forwards, walking up onto the obsidian frame with him. They faced each other, holding hands. Grian’s face looked even more pretty lit up by the golden glow reflecting off his skin and eyes. It made Doc wonder again how he could have gotten this lucky.

  
  


Grian giggled, the cute smile Doc loved so much back on his face.

“You know, I’m the one who’s lucky.”

  
  


“How…?”

  
  


“You always look at me all adorable before you say those cheesy things. I know how you work by now, Doc. You are almost as predictable as your redstone machines.”

  
  


Doc bent down to kiss Grian again, but before he got the opportunity they were both teleported away. Well, there would be more opportunities for kisses. Especially after what Doc had planned for today. The thought of his plans alone made his heart race. He tried to calm his nerves, taking a deep breath as he reappeared somewhere else.

  
  


“Hurry along please! Step out the portal!”, someone in an orange vest kept repeating and he and Grian walked along, following a small stream of people that had probably come from the portal just before them. He had always wondered how these interdimensional admin portals worked, but so far X hadn’t felt like sharing.

  
  


It took them only a minute of walking until they entered the festival grounds. There were rows upon rows of stands, selling different wares, food and drinks. People were walking by. It was dark outside, but above them were a multitude of lanterns, strung up and illuminating everything in a soft glow. It was perfect for a romantic getaway. Doc turned to look at Grian whose eyes were wide and sparkling as he took everything in. It made Doc smile softly. Grian was always so full of emotion, always an open book and Doc knew every little change in his moods and their meaning. There was nobody he could read better. And even when he himself wasn’t as open with his emotions, Grian never seemed to have a problem to read him as well.

  
  


“I’m glad you like it here”, Doc said, smiling and finally Grian turned back around, looking at him in childish excitement.

  
  


“It’s amazing! I’m glad we came. This world is so beautiful!“

  
  


Doc nodded in agreement. “So… Where do you wanna go first?“

  
  


Grian looked around again, his nose scrunched up in that cute way of his, showing that he was thinking about all of his options. Finally his whole face lit up even more and Doc swore he saw his hair puff up a little as he was shaking in excitement.

  
  


Doc followed his line of sight and a fond smile appeared on his face as they landed on the game booth Grian was now pulling him to. By the end of the night they probably would have played every game around here. And if Grian liked something enough, they sure as hell would have an upgraded version of that game in their world soon as well.

  
  


Grian went up to the booth and tossed a diamond to the vendor who handed him a crossbow and a few arrows He pushed a button and behind him small targets shaped like Mobs began to move around. Doc leaned onto the counter. He looked at the targets for a few seconds, before turning to look at Grian again. And the sight made his heart beat faster. Grian’s forehead was furrowed in concentration, one eye closed and the tip of his pink tongue sticking out a little. Doc almost wanted to laugh, but held back, not wanting to distract his boyfriend.

  
  


Grian fired a few times, and each time a frustrated groan left his lips. Doc didn’t even need to look to know that he hadn’t been even close to those targets. Grian had never been much of a fighter. If there was a game about flying now, that would be a completely different story. No one could compete against Grian in that area.

The last arrow sailed through the air and Doc’s eyebrows flew up in surprise as he heard a metallic clink. He turned to look and on of the small zombies was really flipped over.

  
  


“Did you see that, Doc?! I hit one! And it moved really fast! Now you can’t tease me anymore about not being able to shoot! I’m an amazing shooter!” Grian put down his crossbow, shaking in excitement. A fond smile appeared on Doc’s face and he gently petted Grian’s head.

  
  


“I’m so proud of you, dear.”

  
  


The vendor put a small piece of candy on the booth and Grian’s face fell a little, looking at the tiny price. His gaze wandered up and Doc noticed the way he was looking at the huge stuffed animals. With a sigh he pulled out a diamond of his own and put it onto the booth.

  
  


“I’m gonna win that one for you. It’s just as cute as you”, he said pointing at some especially cute looking teddy bear grinning at the way Grian blushed.

  
  


“I can win my own prizes, Doc. You should pick something that you would want to have.”

  
  


“Oh, but I already have the biggest prize I could ever wish to win”, Doc replied, his tone light as he bent over a little, to press a small kiss to the corner of Grian’s mouth, watching in amusement as he got even more flustered. Even now after going steady for three years, Grian would react this adorable to compliments and Doc just loved it.

  
  


He picked up the arrows, putting the crossbow up to his mechanical eye and took a breath in, focus completely on the moving targets. Highest points went to the little vex flying around at the fastest speed. He shot and the arrow flew, hitting the first vex right in the centre. Grian cheered loudly next to him, and Doc allowed himself a short glance over, smirking a little. “Impressed, dear?”

  
  


Grian giggled and nodded. “As always, darling.”

  
  


Doc could feel his heart skip a beat and the nervousness from before was back, as he felt like his clothes suddenly weighed a ton more with the knowledge what he was carrying around. The vendor cleared his throat and Doc quickly turned back, stringing the next arrow into his crossbow.

  
  


One shot after another was fired, hitting the tiny mobs and making them fall over. Doc tucked in the last arrow, focussing on the only vex left that seemed to be flying even faster now. He took a deep breath, the muscles in his finger on the trigger tensing and…

  
  


“Watching you like that really turns me on. I’d just love to rip your clothes off right here, right now.”

  
  


Doc flinched, his eyes widened, the arrow flew through the air, flying high over the targets and embedding itself into the booth’s wall. Doc turned, looking flabbergasted at Grian who had now dissolved into a giggle fit, holding his stomach, tears in his eyes, leaning heavily on the booth. Every time he seemed to be able to stop the laughter, he took one look at Doc’s shocked face and it started all over again.

  
  


Doc gave an annoyed huff and turned to the vendor who seemed to be slightly amused by their display as well.

“Don’t ya worry, mate. Points are still enough for the cute bear. Though I would keep it to myself. Ya guy is too much of a gremlin to deserve it.”

  
  


Doc chuckled as he was handed a teddy bear.

  
  


“I wouldn’t have him any other way”, he just casually replied, before hitting Grian right in the face with the teddy bear. “Oi, stop laughing your ass off or I’ll buy another arrow to shoot that stupid grin off your face. Let’s not start another war.”

  
  


Grian spluttered, arms snaking around the huge teddy bear and lowering it away from his face. The shit eating grin was still there, but he was no longer laughing at least. “Well now wouldn’t that be fun? I bet everyone on the server already missed our wars… Your opening line this time just won’t be as catchy: It all started when Grian’s sexyness made me lose at a shooting game. Doesn’t have the same ring to it as the bush.”

  
  


Doc rolled his eyes, starting to move again. He pulled Grian along, linking their arms together as they continued on walking between the booths. Doc kept looking around. He had been here before, searching for the perfect spot, but now with so many people hurrying around and illuminated only by lamp light it seemed so different from daytime.

  
  


Grian still looked around excitedly and then his eyes landed on something and he hurried off through the crowd. Doc sighed. Next time they went out on a date night into some crowded place he would take a leash with him. He really should have started doing that after Grian got lost on their anniversary last year and he had spent the whole night searching the woods.

  
  


At least Doc had the advantage of being huge and towering over most of the other people by a good bit. It was easy to keep track of his hyper boyfriend. He was still lucky that Grian didn’t go to far and soon stopped at one of the booths selling stuff, already talking hurriedly with the vendor. When Doc reached them Grian had already put a diamond onto the counter. And before Doc could react a red fan was pressed into his hand and Grian smiled brightly at him.

  
  


“It matches your eye colour. Just as I thought. Such a nice and vibrant red. As beautiful as a rose.“

  
  


Doc smiled at that. Grian really was special. He had never once been turned off by Doc’s mechanical parts. While past lovers had looked at those parts with pity, comparing the colour of his eye to blood, Grian loved them just as much as his non-mechanical body parts. He had never made Doc feel insecure about his flaws… And if he knew Doc had just thought of them as flaws he’d probably give him a piece of his mind.

  
  


“You’re spacing out again, darling“, Grian said with a fond smile, still waiting for Doc to take hold of the fan. Doc chuckled, finally letting his fingers curl around the wooden stick, holding the fan in front of his face and staring at Grian.

  
  


“You know red isn’t my colour, it’s yours. Always running around in those stupid red sweaters.”

  
  


Grian smirked. “Well maybe that’s the other reason I like you with that colour so much. It shows everyone that you belong to me. Wouldn’t want anyone daring to steal my boyfriend away.“

  
  


“I don’t really think you have to worry about that. Most people look at me and become scared.”

  
  


Grian huffed in annoyance, looking around and like always there were some who threw irritated glances at Doc’s appearance. Grian made sure to glare extra hard at them. “Well they don’t know you’re a major softie. You’re even more adorable than this teddy.“

  
  


Doc chuckled and pulled Grian up to him, holding the fan to the side and pressing a soft kiss on his lips. They separated only a few millimetres apart and Doc couldn’t help but smile gently. The world around them seemed to disappear while he was looking at Grian.

  
  


“Grian, listen… There’s something I need to talk about…“

  
  


Grian looked up at him with huge questioning eyes. Doc’s mouth felt too dry all of the sudden, his tongue too heavy to move. And then he became aware again of all the people moving around, throwing glances at them, bumping into them to get to some booth.

  
  


“You want something to drink?”

  
  


This sudden shift from a serious tone to that question made Grian look at him in confusion, but he didn’t ask and soon smiled again.

  
  


“Yeah sure. Let’s go over there and-”

  
  


“No, no. I’ll get the drinks. You could maybe get some snack or something. I… I’ll be right back, okay. Let’s meet at the pond behind those booths, alright? Have a little picnic so to say.”

  
  


Grian’s face lit up and he nodded hurriedly, bouncing in excitement. “Will do. See you there. Whoever gets there last is a wingless phantom.”

  
  


Doc chuckled as Grian darted off into the crowd, making his way over to one of the stands. He let his hand wander into the pocket of his yukata, fingers curling around the little box inside. Would they finish another date without him being courageous enough? He had been trying for months now. Ren would have his head if he came back again with bad news… But it wasn’t as easy as Ren made it sound. He needed the perfect moment. During their last date there had been a sudden thunderstorm and Ren had called it a romantic drizzle.

  
  


Doc paid for the drinks and slowly made his way to the pond. Usually he was just as competitive as Grian when it came to their little fights and races, but not today. Today he’d let Grian win if that meant he’d be in an even better mood than he already was.

Doc didn’t get that far. He was just about to walk between two booths to the other side, when he heard raised voices, and one of them sounded too familiar.

  
  


“Come on. We just wanna have some fun. You look like you’d always be up for some fun.“

  
  


“I said I’m not interested. I have a boyfriend.“

  
  


“Dump his sorry ass. Or are you just saying that because you’re shy. You wouldn’t find anyone better than us.“

  
  


Doc turned the corner, walking between the booths again and there he was. A few steps away stood Grian, surrounded by three tall guys, his back against one of the pillars between booths. He was only holding a teddy bear and no food, which probably meant they had already stopped him a few minutes ago. Doc felt anger bubble up inside him as another one of the guys spoke up.

  
  


“We’ve got quite a few diamonds to spend, you see. Wouldn’t you like to be treated? We’d cover you in jewellery instead of stupid stuffed animals. It would suit you. Wearing nothing but chains and gold…” There was a hand on Grian’s cheek now and Doc saw red. He knew very well that Grian was able to defend himself, but Grian always was too friendly to people coming on to him and Doc would have none of that.

  
  


He put the drinks down at one of the tables and marched forward, stopping right next to Grian, pulling him away from the guys so he was no longer trapped. One of them turned to look at Doc enraged.

  
  


“Who do you think you are asshole?”, he snarled and then stopped as his eyes landed on Doc.

  
  


Doc had put a hand over Grian’s shoulder possessively and was glaring over his fan at those guys. He noticed out of the corner of his eye, that Grian was smiling fondly now, but the tight grip he had on the teddy bear proved that he was still at least a little shaken. And if those assholes ruined the mood for the evening now…

  
  


“This is my boyfriend“, Grian started, grinning at Doc who continued.

  
  


“So you lowlifes better back off, or I might be forced to remove you another way”, Doc growled, his mechanical eye glowing brighter as he felt the fury inside him rise.

  
  


The guys also seemed to notice, practically staring at his mechanical parts. They didn’t look as confident as before anymore, but rather scared.

  
  


“Sorry, Mr. Robot, sir. Didn’t know he was yours. Please don’t shoot any laser beams at us.“

  
  


Doc felt irritated at that, his glare only becoming more pissed off, which finally made the guys turn around and hurry off, still apologizing to the ‘scary robot’. And he swore he heard one of them say something about his ‘terrifying murder eye’.

  
  


Doc’s grip on Grian tightened and only when Grian winced a little he realised that it must have been painfully hard. He backed off at once, but Grian would have none of that, pulling him back and into a hug.

  
  


“Let’s go somewhere more quiet now.“

  
  


Doc nodded and with Grian holding onto his arm he went back to get the drinks before they made their way through the booths and off the festival grounds. There was a small pond, illuminated by the soft orange glow of floating lanterns. They sat down at a stone bench right next to it, the teddy bear right between them, silently looking at the water and enjoying their drinks. Doc rubbed at the metal parts of his face, still slightly irritated at the comments he had gotten. He shouldn’t let it get to him as much as he did.

  
  


“You know those guys were idiots?“

  
  


Doc chuckled. “Tell me something I don’t know already. They really should know not to put their slimy hands all over-“

  
  


“That’s not what I’m talking about“, Grian softly took Doc’s hand and pulled it away from his face, “They said a lot of dumb things about your beautiful face.“

  
  


“It’s alright Grian. I know my face is scary. Weren’t you scared as well when you first saw me?”

  
  


Grian giggled quietly. “Oh I was scared, but not because of your eye or arm or anything like that. The trident flying right by my face was way scarier. I might also have been so nervous because you are too hot, not because I was scared.” Grian was now softly tracing a metal line on the side of his face, resting his hand on Doc’s cheek. “I fell in love with you not despite the way you look, but with you as a whole. I love every part of you, be it your human parts, your creeper parts or-” Grian bent forward, putting a light kiss right above Doc’s glowing red eye “-your mechanical parts. I wouldn’t want you any other way.“

  
  


And Doc felt like there would be no better moment than now. He cleared his throat nervously, his hand wandering into his pocket and pulling out the box. Grian didn’t seem to notice, still looking at nothing but Doc’s face.

  
  


“I love you too, Grian. I love you at your best and at your worst mood. I will still love you if you start another war. I love you with all your flaws… And there are a lot of those”, he added the last part in a joking tone and Grian softly hit him in the shoulder. And then Grian’s eyes wandered down and he noticed the small box. A hand immediately flew up to cover his mouth, eyes wide in disbelief, looking from the box back at Doc’s face.

  
  


“Doc, you… are you…?”

  
  


“Yeah. I’m trying to”, Doc replied softly, opening the box to reveal a small silver ring. Nothing overly fancy, simple and still beautiful, just like Grian. “I want to love you for the rest of our lives and beyond. So-“

  
  


“Yes!“, Grian interrupted him, eyes shining with excitement and a few unshed tears.

  
  


“I haven’t even asked yet”, Doc said with an amused smile.

  
  


“Oh… Sorry. Go on”, Grian whispered, giggling softly. And that giggle just made Doc’s heart beat even faster, filling him with happiness.

  
  


“Do you want to marry me?”

  
  


“Yes!”, Grian repeated with even more excitement than before, grabbing Doc by the front of his yukata and pulling him forward, smashing their lips together.

  
  


When they parted again, both a little out of breath, Doc took hold of Grian’s hand, pulling the ring out of the box and sliding it gently over his finger. And he had never felt as happy as he did now, Grian looking at him with nothing but love, a lone tear running down his face and Doc could feel his human eye also become a little wet with emotion.

  
  


“And it all started when Grian touched my bush…”, he whispered and looked at Grian like he was the only source of light in his life, before bending forward and kissing him softly.


	12. Vote For Mumbo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is for the advent calendar I tried to start on my tumblr.
> 
> I shall upload it here as well, sorry I started a bit late on Ao3. I'll do 2 a day until I caught up. Mind that these are a lot shorter than my usual oneshots, but I hope you still enjoy them.

Grian looked at Mumbo after stepping out of the voting booth. He did feel a bit guilty. All this time spent campaigning and now in the moment were it mattered most he had let himself be swept away by some fancy landscaping. It had just made his builder heart race faster and it had been hard to resist that pull.

  
Mumbo smiled at him, looking even more tired than he did when working the night away to get some of his redstone machinery done. Maybe it had been a mistake getting Mumbo involved in this mayoral madness. Maybe he should have just run himself. And then, after making Mumbo go through with all of this he hadn‘t even voted for him.

Grian lowered his head, unable to look into Mumbo’s eyes. Guilt weighed heavy on his shoulders. It felt like he was drowning in regret. Why didn’t he vote for Mumbo? Why hadn‘t he campaigned himself? Why hadn‘t he tried harder to get more votes? He had known for a while already that the campaign was over and the election impossible to win and yet, he‘d still pushed to go on. He was the worst friend in-

“You didn‘t vote for me.”

It wasn‘t said as a question. It was a fact. Mumbo knew - had probably known before Grian had even entered the vote.

“Grian, look at me.”

Mumbo sounded so tired and Grian flinched a little, slowly raising his head again. He needed to steel himself, took a shuddering breath and then he made eye contact with Mumbo. And Mumbo looked right back at him, tired - yes - but also content. He didn‘t look mad at Grian or even disappointed and then a soft smile appeared on his face, making his mustache jump a little.

“It‘s alright. This whole campaign thing was fun and all that, but you do know I never really intended to become the mayor, right? I didn‘t even vote for myself.”

Grian‘s eyes widened at that, looking at Mumbo in shock. Out of all the things coming from Mumbo, he really hadn‘t expected this.

“You didn‘t? But… why? Why? And why did you even let me run this whole campaign when you didn‘t want to be mayor. It was a joke, sure, but you know I would have stopped if you had told me to.”

“I know you would have. And that was the problem“, Mumbo replied calmly, eyes focused intently on Grian, seemingly looking straight into his innermost core, able to read Grian like an open book. “I needed you to believe I wanted to be mayor and I think I managed that much.”

Grian made a confused sound, looking to the voting booth, where a few Mumbo for mayor posters were still hanging around, his hands nervously fidgeting with the hem of his own ‘Vote for Mumbo’-Shirt. He didn‘t understand what was going on. He didn‘t understand what Mumbo was hinting at. 

“What‘re you trying to say”, Grian asked, searching Mumbo‘s eyes for something - anything - that would help him solve his questions.

Mumbo sighed quietly and this time he was the one breaking their eye contact, mumbling something. He took a breath, before straightening out his shoulders, standing tall before Grian, looking really professional and dashing in his mayoral suit.

“I wanted to spend time with you. You were with me all the time. You constantly came over to my place with crazy ideas. It was almost like how it used to be back at Sahara.. The two of us together. Hours upon hours. I just wanted that again.”

Grian was at a loss of words at first, his mind racing, trying to guess at what Mumbo was trying to tell him.

“But we‘re almost neighbours. We‘re not that far apart.”

“And yet we rarely see each other, lost in our own projects. This was one we could work on together. And I had a lot of fun. I wanted it to go on as long as possible. I wanted to have you by my side as long as possible, because-” Mumbo pressed his lips together, hesitant and then took another step forward. “-because I really like you Grian.”

Mumbo bent down, stopping for a second before he reached Grian‘s face. Grian gave the tiniest of nods and then Mumbo‘s lips were on his. And suddenly Grian didn‘t care anymore. He didn‘t care about elections and campaigns, about who won and who lost, about voting for another candidate. All he could think about was Mumbo. The way he smelled of redstone and mint, the way the hairs of his mustache were tickling Grian, the way his slightly calloused hands caressed Grian‘s cheek, the way his tongue was touching Grian‘s now.

Mumbo might not have won the election that day, but he sure as hell took home his price that day.


	13. Before It's All Over

It was a good thing, they were Hippies, Grian thought. It was great in general, but now especially it was perfect. Nobody ever questioned a bunch of flowers lying around. Especially not since Grian had built his little flower farm. The whole camp was covered in flowers in different colours shapes and sizes. 

  
  


There was nothing weird about a bunch of petals around the campfire where Grian had just taken a break. Nothing at all.

Grian coughed and there it was again. He hated the feeling. He hated when it happened, but he was still unable to keep his thoughts from wandering. Impulse had just strolled by, greeting Grian with a smile and leaving to retreat to his RV when the coughing fit had started. He held his hand up to his face, his body convulsing. It was over pretty fast and when he pulled back his hand it was full of yellow and red petals. He quickly threw them into the flames, watching them burn up, leaving no trace behind. Only the knowledge that he was absolutely doomed.

  
  


It had been a week now since this had started. There had been fewer and smaller petals in the beginning. Now it was always a handful. He shuddered when he remembered last night, when he had looked out of the window to see Tango had dropped by. He had watched them, all smiles and laughs, Impulse pulling Tango close, their faces only an inch apart and suddenly a coughing fit had started, something big closing his throat. It had been painful and he had been on the floor in tears when he had finally managed to cough up a dark red rose and not just some petals. Lucky for him Tango was gone by the time he had looked out again.

  
  


Grian had known from the very start what was wrong with him. But he had always thought it was some urban myth - just a legend and nothing more. Now he was pretty sure everything was real… Which meant he had little time left to live. And all that because his stupid heart had decided to fall for Impulse with his charming smile, his good looks and his warm personality.

  
  


Another coughing fit shook him and he cursed himself for thinking about Impulse at all. It seemed to trigger the disease more often than not these days. He looked at the petals again, noticing a few droplets of blood on one of the yellow ones. He flinched and threw them away hurriedly.

  
  


He should confess to Impulse. He really should just say something. But he was scared. Grian was pretty sure Tango and Impulse were dating or heading in that direction. He didn’t want Impulse to take pity on him. And if Impulse did let him down… Well according to some legends he’d die. The disease would grow exponentially fast and he’d choke.  
Not saying anything was just a way to survive a bit longer. Respawning didn’t help. Even through countless respawns the disease had stayed with him. Once he died from it he would just enter an endless circle of pain and suffocation and that’s what scared him even more than the thought of Impulse finally telling him to the face that he wasn’t interested.

  
  


Another fit of coughs. Damn. Today was really bad. He should leave the camp to make sure nobody discovered it. Maybe a little resource gathering trip would help him clear his mind.

  
  


As he stood up and walked to the forest he left a trail of petals. His throat hurt and felt raw. He uncorked a Healing Potion and drank it. That had already been his fifth that day. It helped slow down the pain for a while. It helped him think straight for a bit, but it never stopped the creeping progress of the flowers.

  
  


Another week passed. It got worse and worse. Grian turned in bed as another coughing fit shook his body. It took a while and then a few bloody flowers were littering the ground. He tried to calm his breathing, looking around his RV. About every surface was covered in petals, some still had dried blood on them. The times in between coughing fits got shorter and shorter. The amount of petals and whole flowers grew higher and higher. He knew that his end was going to come soon. 

  
  


Grian looked at the Healing Potion and then slowly rose from bed. The potion would only give him about a minute or two. It hadn’t been really effective the last few days anymore. Grian had holed up in the van when Ren had first asked about the weird amount of bloody flowers appearing. There was no use in hiding. He didn’t want his fellow Hippies to be the one to find him in his constant circle of dying. He really didn’t want anyone to find him like that. 

  
  


He put another bed into his inventory, ready to leave, search for a secluded spot and start his never ending circle of death there. He just needed… He needed to say goodbye to Impulse. He couldn’t leave just like that. Another coughing fit and a bunch of yellow petals floated to the ground as Grian staggered for the door. Impulse’s voice came from right outside. It was now or never.

  
  


The potion tasted sweet, but it was a taste Grian had started to hate and he almost gagged as it mixed with the blood in his mouth. A deep breath. The coughing had stopped and he hurried out of the van, closing the door behind him before all the petals could be swept outside by the wind.

  
  


Ren and Impulse stopped mid conversation, both looking at Grian in confusion and worry.

  
  


“Grian? Are you-”, Impulse started, but Grian was on a ticking clock. He had no time for questions. 

  
  


“I need to leave… For a while. I-” Grian stopped, looking into Impulse’s warm and worried eyes, begging him for an explanation he couldn’t give.

  
  


“I trust that you’ll finish what we started together. I… Impulse…” The words were on the tip of his tongue. If he was to die anyways why not just confess. But he realised the moment he looked at Impulse that he couldn’t do it. If Impulse was the one to kill Grian - even if it was indirectly - he would probably never forgive himself. If he left, nobody needed to know. Nobody needed to find out that Impulse had been the one - albeit involuntarily - causing his death. “Take care. And… I hope you’ll be happy. You should really… “ He felt like another coughing fit was about to start, something rising in his throat and he smiled grimly. “Maybe try and be happy with Tango. I think you guys are cute together.”  
  
Grian rushed to take some rockets out and before Impulse or Ren could utter another confused question he had taken off, flying over the forest. The thought of Impulse and Tango had immediately made his throat tighten with what he knew was another blossom lodging itself in there. It didn’t take long. The coughing started, hard and painful. The rockets slipped from Grian’s grasp and he was falling, unable to control his movement. He crashed hard onto his stomach, slowly getting on all fours only to cough out a giant flower along with a ton of petals and it kept going and going and going until he collapsed inside the giant mess he had just made, lying there, trying to catch his breath.

  
  


“What are you planning this time Hippie? More flowers?”

  
  


Grian startled at the voice. He hadn’t even heard Doc step up to him. His body felt so weak and he barely managed to lift his head, spitting out another petal as blood trickled down his chin.

  
  


Doc almost seemed to jump back in shock, trident falling from his hand, eyes wide.

  
  


“Grian. Fuck. Who?”

  
  


Grian just smiled tiredly and then the coughing started again. He could hear Doc shouting into his communicator, calling for Scar to get… something. It was really hard to stay focused when it felt like he was suffocating already as all those flowers worked their way through his windpipe.

  
  


He coughed out a flower. And another. The feeling in his throat still wasn’t gone. He was running out of air. He felt like fainting. But if he fainted he’d die. Black dots danced in front of his blurry vision. The sound of rockets, there were hands on him, picking him up and then everything around him turned black.

  
  


Beeping.

  
  


Something was beeping.

  
  


Loudly.

  
  


Grian slowly gained consciousness again. He should be dead right now. He had fainted, a flower stuck in his throat. How was he still alive? Was he in between Respawns?

  
  


“Grian?” 

  
  


Scar’s voice. Grian opened his eyes. He realised two things the moment he did: One, he was in Area 77 on a bed, both Doc and Scar by his side, both looking worried; and two, he wasn’t breathing. There were two tubes in his mouth and without needing to take in air it seemed to supply him with it. He blinked a few times and looked down at the tubes, seeing petals floating through one of them out of his mouth as if sucking them out of his body.

  
  


“It’s the only thing we could do to keep you alive there”, Doc whispered and Grian looked back to him. Doc had never once looked so emotional. Lately he’d only glared at Grian, but now he seemed so hurt, devastated even. “It won’t help much longer though. I- I saw it once, a long time ago. We only bought you a few days at most. The flowers will just keep growing until the machine can’t keep up anymore, until your lungs have no room for air anymore.”

  
  


Grian nodded weakly. He felt tears welling up in his eyes. Really, he should have known better than to feel hope again. Hope that maybe Doc and Scar had found a way to help him overcome this disease. But no, it was fatal after all.

  
  


“Grian please”, Scar was quiet, his voice sounding rough, eyes slightly red. He must have cried before, when Grian had still been out. “Tell us who it is. We can bring them here. Is it Mumbo? Iskall? I’m sure me and Doc could include you in our relationship if it’s one of us. We’d try for you.”

  
  


Grian felt the corners of his mouth twitch up a little at this and he gave a tiny shake of his head. This right there was the reason he’d never told Impulse. Any of the Hermits in this situation would throw everything overboard to save Grian, even if that meant sacrificing their own Happiness.

  
  


Doc looked at him, searching. “Is it Ren?” Another head shake. “Impulse?” Grian wanted to shake his head again. _No! Not Impulse. Don’t get Impulse involved_ , his mind seemed to scream, but when he hesitated too long and Doc’s eyes turned even sadder, he knew he had already given it away. With the first tear running down his cheek he nodded, admitting for the first time to someone that he was in love with Impulse, even if it wasn’t out loud.

  
  


“We’ll get him, Scar, you-” Doc stopped when Grian grabbed his labcoat weakly, shaking his head slightly. Doc looked torn for a second, but then his face turned cold and his eyes were back on Scar. “Get Impulse in here asap. Tell him that we have captured Grian. He won’t be able to say no.”

  
  


Scar nodded and rushed out. The room went quiet once more, except for the beeping the machine made as it kept sucking petals from Grian’s body. 

  
  


“I’m not losing you, Grian. We might fight a lot, but you’re still part of this family. I don’t care if you hate me for this, but I won’t let you die if I can do something about it. I’ll get Impulse’s ass in here and you’ll confess.”

  
  


Grian raised his eyebrows, glancing down at the tubes for a second and then back to Doc

  
  


“Well write your fucking confession down then, do sign language or blink in morse code for all I care. I can’t let you die!”

  
  


Grian closed his eyes again. He was tired. So tired. He couldn’t even bother to feel nervous about Impulse coming over. Just… He wanted this all to end.

  
  


“Grian!!” A loud shout woke Grian up again with a start and he turned his head a little. “What did you do to him?! This is not fun anymore! I’m going to-”

  
  


“We didn’t do anything to him. We saved him.”

  
  


Impulse looked at Grian and their eyes met and the anger faded from those soft eyes at once. Impulse strode forward, dropping onto a chair right next to the bed Grian was on, gently picking up his hand.

  
  


“Grian… We- Me and Ren-” Impulse’s eyes were on the petals traveling through the tube. “We found the bloody flowers in your RV. Were they… Did they grow inside of you?”

  
  


Grian nodded slightly. A warm feeling filled his stomach as Impulse’s thumb started gently caressing his hand. He wanted this moment to last forever, to never stop, but he knew it would be all over soon.

  
  


“You should have told us. We would have tried to help. I… I was so worried when you left. I thought I would never see you again.” Impulse looked at the tubes again. “Well that was probably what you thought as well.” He turned away from Grian, looking to Scar and Doc. “Did you tell Xisuma? He should be able to fix this, right? This is just some weird bug or something.”

  
  


“It’s not. No admin can fix this. Believe me. I wasn’t able to fix this when I was one. You’re the only one able to help.”

  
  


“Me?”

  
  


Impulse looked back at Grian in confusion. 

  
  


“Tell me how. I’ll do anything. No matter what. Grian can’t die.”

  
  


“You tell him, Grian.”

  
  


Grian’s hands were shaking and he pointed at the tubes.

  
  


“If we remove those you’re going to die in a matter of minutes. You sure.”

Grian nodded. Yeah, he was sure. If Impulse didn’t reciprocate his feelings, he’d be dead with or without the tubes. He at least wanted to say the words he had longed to say for so long just once. Just this one time and maybe he’d be able to die without any regrets then.

  
  


Doc stepped over again. There was a loud noise and Grian realised a Splash potion of healing had been dropped onto him. He threw Doc a thankful glance.

  
  


“Make it count, lil guy.”

  
  


The tubes slowly left his throat and then his mouth and Grian took a shuddering breath. He could already feel the petals trying to rise up again and he focused on his breathing, turning to Impulse.

  
  


“Imp… ulse…” His voice was rough and it hurt to speak, but he wouldn’t let that stop himself. He held onto Impulse’s hand harder, trying to gather strength that way. He smiled sadly. This was it. This was the end. Fuck, he didn’t want to die.

  
  


“I love you.”

  
  


The petals were back in his throat now and he coughed, some of them spilling out of his mouth, blood staining the blanket covering him too. Impulse looked at him so shocked. If it was because of the petals or the confession, Grian couldn’t tell.

  
  


Seconds passed. Something seemed to grow inside of Grian. Breathing was getting harder. It was as if hardly any air fit inside of him. Another coughing fit. He spat out a poppy, the blood barely visible on the red leaves. He was gasping for air now.

  
  


“Doc get that tube in again!” Impulse shouted, sounding panicked suddenly, looking at Grian with wide eyes. “Don’t die Grian! Please. Please don’t die. I love you. You can’t die now. Please don’t.”

  
  


Suddenly Grian took in a huge gasp of air, sitting upright in the bed so abrupt he almost knocked his head against Impulse’s. The pressure was gone. The feeling of something being stuck in his throat as well.

  
  


“What…?”

  
  


Impulse looked so confused and they both stared at the poppy on the blanket that slowly dissolved into red sparkles.

  
  


“How?”

  
  


“You saved me. You love me.”

  
  


“I… I do…” Impulse still sounded confused and Grian knew he owed him a long explanation after this. But not now. Now Grian needed to feel Impulse. Now he needed to breathe again for a while. And so he pulled Impulse close into a hug, burying his face against the others chest and just breathing in the familiar scent.

  
  


“I love you. I love you so much, Impulse.”

  
  


There were arms around him now, pressing him close and finally Grian knew he could stop worrying, he could stop thinking for a moment and just let himself fall.

  
  


“I love you too.”


	14. Monochrome

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ren/Iskall

Iskall‘s communicator beeped and he looked down at it and suddenly he felt a huge weight being lifted off his shoulders, followed by a slight bit of guilt at being happy. Doc had been demised. It was over. He was the last one alive. He had won.

Iskall leaned back against the wall of his shop, pushing the hair out of his face with a shaking hand, a happy laugh bubbling from his throat. Oh god, it was over. It was finally over. The Demised would finally return back to their original form.

No more cold and emotionless voices. And he‘d have _him_ back. Finally. 

This game had sounded like so much fun. Just a joyful little hunting game. No hurt feelings, just friends having fun together. That was until they realised that the magic Grian had used to create this game had some slight side effects. At least for some of the demised Hermits.

While Stress was as bubbly as ever running around rocking her greyscale look, some of the others had changed. They had become a mere shadow of themselves. It had hurt Iskall every time. Just a week ago he had watched Grian walk into the room. Grian who was like a walking ray of sunshine, who had kept Iskall from going insane, who had been there for Iskall at every step of the way ever since Demise began, his cheerful smile had turned into a sadistic smirk as he told them about the brutal traps he had planned.

Losing Grian had been the last straw. There had been nobody else able to distract him from the dark places his mind had gone to. But now it was over. Now they‘d all turn back to normal. Iskall pushed off the wall, his whole heart warming up.

Before he knew it he had run into the Nether, skidding around corners, almost hitting the walls a few times. A few minutes later, he stepped out of the portal in the Halloween district. He should have just dropped a message, but he couldn‘t sit still now that it was over. He needed to see _him_.

He rushed forward, dodging trees and graves, and finally he stepped into the crypt that had been the beginning of this district of the Demised.

„Ren?“, Iskall called out. He heard sounds coming from below and jumped to the ladder, just sliding down instead of climbing, hitting the floor a bit harder than comfortable.

„Ren! It‘s over! God! It‘s finally over and you‘re back to-“ Iskall stopped. There in the middle of the room was Ren. Still grey. Still looking at Iskall out of cold eyes, no trace of his smile. Iskall‘s face fell. He could feel tears form behind his eyes. This was not how he had expected things to go. 

He had expected Ren to smile again. One of his warm and loving smiles that made all of Iskall‘s worries disappear in the blink of an eye. He had expected to feel those warm strong arms around him, pulling him close and not letting go for a long time.

“Iskall.” Ren‘s voice was cold and hollow. Nothing like the cheerful teasing tone, the way Iskall‘s name usually rolled off the tip of his tongue. “Congratulations on surviving.”

“Why?”

Ren just looked at him, eyebrows raised, but face devoid of emotion, not saying anything.

“Why didn‘t you turn back. I won. It‘s over. Fuck what‘s wrong with this game?”

Ren just shrugged, seemingly unconcerned by the desperate voice of his boyfriend.

“Ren please.”

“Leave, Iskall. Your heartbeat is really loud and annoying. And do you ever stop talking?”

Iskall shook his head, stepping up to Ren, determination shining in his eyes as he shoved Ren against the wall. All he got in return was an unimpressed look. 

“Whatever you‘re about to try, it won‘t work. I already told you so many times during the game. You winning changes nothing. Your Ren is dead. I‘m Grimdog now. This heart will never beat again.”

„Well I can at least try!“

Iskall hesitated for a moment, but then pressed his lips against Ren‘s. He put one hand against Ren‘s chest, trying to feel a flicker of a heartbeat. Anything. Seconds ticked by, hope dwindling, Ren just staring at him unmoving.

It was over.

“Well…” Iskall felt his throat tighten and he backed away again. His mind was racing and fear spread in his chest. What if Ren never changed back? What if none of the other Hermits did.

Iskall turned around, no longer able to look at Ren. He couldn‘t even ask Xisuma for help. He was also one of the Hermits who were hit hard by the magic. Maybe Wels or Zedaph could help. They weren‘t in the game after all. Tango and Impulse also seemed to be dealing pretty well with this whole magic business.

Iskall climbed up the ladder, not even saying goodbye to Ren. It felt weird. They always kissed, always dropped some loving words before parting. When he stepped out of the crypt he could hear steps following him and for a second, just a second, he dared to hope that there had been some delayed reaction to the kiss, that Ren had felt something. He turned to look, his heart fluttering with hope.

Ren‘s eyes were still icy. “Just making sure you‘re not sneaking around where you shouldn‘t be. Leave our district now.”

Iskall just nodded, walking forward. The portal was right in front of him now. He could only see it‘s blurry outline, tears gathering in his eyes. This felt so final. Another step and suddenly the ground below his right foot lowered a bit, a loud click sounding and he knew that he had just stepped into one of the many traps still remaining on the server.

He should run, but he felt tired, so tired. A series of clicks and suddenly TNT was dropping from some contraption above him, the blocks already lit and surrounding him. There was no chance to escape. Putting on his Elytra would take too long and outrunning the blast was impossible.

There was a loud scream and Iskall was pushed away by a strong force. Not the TNT though. There was something on top of him. And then the TNT blew up with a deafening bang. His ears were ringing and his whole body hurt, but he was alive. He opened his eyes, looking straight into Ren. Ren, who was bleeding, coat torn away completely from his back, looking down at him, eyes wide.

“Iskall…”

The voice sounded pained. And worried. He wasn‘t imagining that, right?

He raised a shaking hand and touched Ren‘s chest and then he felt it. A heartbeat. And another. Ren‘s heart was beating. It was-

And then Ren‘s body dissolved in a cloud of green sparkles.

“No.”, Iskall whispered, hurrying up to his feet. 

“NO!”, he screamed, looking around. “REN?!”

Iskall started sprinting back to the crypt again, hoping against all odds that Ren would have set his respawn point there. He completely skipped the ladder this time, landing hard on his feet, his ankles screaming in pain. But that wouldn‘t hold him back.

He dashed forward to the bed. Someone was lying on the bed. It was dark down here, but then Iskall stepped closer and Ren opened his eyes, those sky blue eyes, not a fleck of grey.

“Iskall… Are you alright, love?”

Ren‘s voice was warm and worried and full of love and Iskall couldn‘t help it. He let out a small sob, throwing himself at Ren and just pulling him close, holding him, feeling his warmth, hearing his heartbeat.

“I am now. Everything‘s alright now.”

And when he lifted his head again, soft lips met his, giving just as much love this time as Iskall had. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visit me at https://melon-wing.tumblr.com/ if you wanna message me or just read some extra stories ♥


	15. Peace Treaty

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Scar/Grian/Bdubs

Grian looked at the letter in deep thought, lounging on his chair in the Mycelium Resistance Headquarters. Well lounging probably wasn‘t the right word. He was lying on the chair, head hanging down while his legs were propped up against the backrest, the letter held in his outstretched hands upside down so he was able to read it. He had stared at it for a good hour now, reading it again and again, lost in thought. Other members of his team had come and gone, knowing better than to try and take the decision from him, just offering to be there for him no matter what he wanted to do.

  
One day… One day he would be in a fight where he wasn‘t the leader calling the shots, facing the tough decisions on his own. Sure, he could ask around and he knew everyone here would be willing to help him make that choice. But ultimately he was the one responsible for whatever consequences it brought along.  
  


A heavy sigh passed his lips and he turned his head to the side a bit, watching Ren and Etho talking in hushed voices off to the side. They were all on edge. He was taking too long, he knew. A choice like this could mean the end of a war, one way or another.

  
He turned back to the letter, reading it once more, looking for anything he might have missed.

  
_Dear Leader of the Mycelium Resistance (whoever you might be, probably Mumbo, and certainly not Grian),_

  
_The Mayor and HEP have decided to offer you the chance - only this once - to join us in a meeting. We‘re all tired of this war and there‘s no satisfying end in sight. The Mayor agrees to listen to your demands and would like to find a compromise._

  
_In other words: We offer a meeting to discuss a peace treaty._

  
_If you agree, come alone and unarmed to the coordinates added on to the letter at noon tomorrow. Only the Mayor and I will be present. No weapons or foul tricks shall be allowed or the talk is done._

  
_Greetings,_

_Bdubs_

_Official assistant and campaign manager of Mayor Scar and very important person in this whole mayoral business_

  
Grian couldn‘t stop his lips from twitching upwards a bit at the last part. Bdubs just had a way to always make him smile and laugh and… Grian missed that. Ever since their fight started…

  
Well before that he had been spending a lot of time with Scar and Bdubs in the Upside Down, just hanging around, playing pranks on one another and building stuff together. They had spent some nights huddled together in one of Bdubs‘ overworld houses, planning out everything they wanted to build and do… And then the campaigns had started. 

Oh god, Grian wanted this to end, he really did. He had expected this to be so much fun. Just like the Civil War last season. Or the fight against Area 77. And it had been in the beginning. Now though… He missed Scar and Bdubs‘ company a lot.

  
A loud groan and Grian let his head hit the floor, throwing the piece of paper to the side. He had spent so much time thinking about what to do it was almost time for the proposed meeting.

  
“So you‘ve decided?”, Ren‘s voice came from the side, both him and Etho looking over curiously.

  
Grian nodded and rolled backwards from the chair, landing gracefully on his feet. 

  
“I‘m going.”

  
“You do know it‘s gonna be a trap? I‘m pretty sure it‘s a trap. Just let me come with you. Or let Etho accompany you. They won‘t see him, they won‘t even know he‘s there.”

  
What Ren was saying sounded like the proper thing to do. It would be the thing a leader should probably do. But Grian shook his head, making a gesture that made his sword and bow appear from his inventory into his hand. He put both of his weapons onto the table, not even hesitating.

  
“Grian…”

  
“I know what I‘m doing. It‘s a risk worth taking. Etho-” He turned to his friends as he started strapping on his Elytra, deciding against putting on his armour as well. “You‘re in command while I‘m gone. If I don‘t return don‘t listen to any demands and just keep going. I‘ll be fine.”

  
They both looked like they wanted to protest, but Grian didn‘t give them an opportunity to, taking out a rocket and flying off as fast as the fireworks would let him. It didn‘t take him long and he was only slightly late, because he had decided to fly a detour to come from a different direction, just in case his arrival would be monitored. They had to know he had come straight from their headquarters.

  
Grian landed in front of a small cottage on an island. The area seemed empty enough. Nobody would be able to hide in the open like this. But they might just be trying to lull him into a false sense of security. There were many ways to hide after all.

  
Grian stepped into the cottage. It looked cozy on the inside, carpets on the wooden floor, an open large room with a fireplace and couches and armchairs around it. On one of those couches sat Bdubs and Scar, both looking at him expectantly.

  
“You came”, Scar started in disbelief and Grian couldn‘t help but chuckle.

  
“I came”, he simply echoed and went over, sitting down in one of the armchairs, looking at the others, searching. They were sitting close together, real close. And yeah, he knew both of them had little care for personal space and touch. But the way Bdubs hand was on Scar‘s leg, Scar‘s hand atop it, thumb gently tracing the lines. 

  
Grian stared at their hands for a moment, feeling some weird stinging sensation inside his chest. God, he missed them. He missed… No. He needed to think straight. This wasn‘t a friendly chat. He was here as a representative of the Mycelium Resistance, as its leader.

  
“So what did you want to negotiate in this-”

  
“We miss you”, Bdubs blurted out, not waiting for Grian to finish his question. Scar next to him looked just as shocked as Grian felt.

  
“B! I thought we agreed to at least pretend we‘re here for official business.”

  
“Sorry! I can‘t help it! I want him back!”

  
Grian raised his eyebrows in confusion, looking at them weirdly as they just kept going.

  
“You think I don‘t? It‘s why I agreed to this stupid plan in the first place!”

  
“Hey! It‘s not stupid! It worked.”

  
“It worked so far.”

  
“Excuse me…”, Grian interrupted quietly.

  
“What?!”, both of them exclaimed loudly, finally stopping their staring match and turning their eyes back on Grian, the glare then slowly fading as they realised how carried away they had become.

  
“What‘s going on here?”

  
They exchanged a few looks, a silent conversation going on between them. And finally Scar began.

  
“I confessed to Bdubs yesterday.”

  
Grian felt his chest deflate as he let out a breath, eyes slowly drifting to their joined hands again.

  
“Oh… That… Congratulations I guess”, he muttered, gaze focused onto their hands still. “I guess it worked out between you then.”

  
“Yeah”, Bdubs replied, the smile so obvious in his voice and his fingers interlacing with Scar‘s. “I‘m one lucky guy.”

  
“So you called in a meeting like this to tell me? You want me to give you a resistance free day to go on a date or something? You know that‘s not how this whole resistance thing works, right?” Grian‘s voice was cold. So cold that he himself was surprised by it, but he just couldn‘t help it. He suddenly felt like there was a rock made of ice in his chest. Slowly he stood up from the armchair, hands balled into fists. “This meeting is over.”

  
“Grian… That‘s not-”, Scar started but stopped, sounding so uncertain, so scared and it made Grian look up again. Scar looked at him, a longing, desperate expression, only mirrored on Bdubs face and it took Grian by surprise.

  
“We want to stop this war, because one thing came pretty clear after the confession. We talked about all of our emotions” Bdubs looked him straight into the eyes, his voice sounding far less scared than Scar‘s, but a little wavering still gave away how nervous he was. “We‘re both not just interested in one another. We weren‘t just flirting with one another before this whole thing happened.”

  
Grian tilted his head in confusion and Bdubs‘ gave a frustrated sigh at that, letting go of Scar‘s hand to stretch out his arm towards Grian. And without a second thought Grian took that hand, being pulled forward and in one fluid movement both Bdubs and Scar moved to the side, so that Grian plopped down onto the couch in between them. There was a hand on each of his legs, both Scar and Bdubs looking at him and Grian felt heat rising to his face.

  
“I-I…”, he stuttered, eyes darting left and right, unsure of what to say.

  
Bdubs chuckled. “So what do you say, little rebel. Do you wanna have peace and be with us?”

  
“I… I‘d like that.”

  
The moment Grian spoke those words two pairs of lips hit his cheeks on opposite sides of his face.

  
A week later for reasons unknown, a peace treaty was signed between the mayor and the Mycelium Resistance. A lot of Hermits were left to wonder how they managed to agree on so many compromises… Well, that was until they stumbled upon the parties that signed the contract making out in the middle of the barge.


	16. Your Smile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> False/Stress

Stress had been excited for the MCC the first time some of the Hermits had joined to go off. It was a huge competition and sounded like lots of fun. They all had cheered their friends on, welcoming them home with a banner and a party. It had all been for fun. Just some light hearted games.  
  


Then False had won the first time. She had deserved it and Stress had been so happy for her. Right after False had thrown herself head first into training. And Stress had watched as she cut down even more on her sleep to get better, to train more, to hold onto her title. And fun had turned into something serious.

  
Stress still felt bad, but she had hoped and prayed that False would lose. That she‘d go back to the fun ways again. Nobody else seemed to notice. Or maybe they didn‘t bother to talk about it. Stress had tried. Again. And again. Invitations to dinner. Dropping over at False‘s place to have a friendly chat. False declined over and over again, telling Stress she had to train.

  
And then False won for a second time and Stress tried to smile when she stepped through the portal, she really did. But the moment she had laid eyes on False‘s tired face, on the multiple dark spots she got from missing jumps… Stress‘ face had fallen.

  
She had wordlessly left the celebration, not seeing the pained expression False had made at her retreating form.

  
That had been a month ago. They were at a meeting right now, Xisuma going over all the little important things they needed to know, about farms that might need to be toned down a bit and all Stress could do was look at False.

  
She looked tired. Her face seemed thinner than usual. She wasn‘t getting enough food. Stress really wanted to whip out one of her homemade cakes and shove it into False‘s face.

  
“And lastly… The MCC has accepted your application guys”, Xisuma said, a small smile on his face. “False, Grian and Ren will be joined by a fourth to compete together. I hope you guys will be having fun.”

  
Stress‘ face fell and she turned to look at False who smiled tiredly, being patted on the back by Ren next to her, muttering some form of encouragement about taking home the crown again.

  
False then turned to look right at Stress. She tried again. She tried to be cheerful, but Stress couldn‘t help it. The disappointment was still clear as daylight on her face and so she turned to look away. This had been the last opportunity to have False ridiculous and self destroying training be stopped.

  
The meeting was done soon and Stress went straight for the exit, when the other Hermits went over to False to encourage her. Why was nobody seeing how much False was pushing herself? Did nobody notice the slight shaking of her hand? The way the smile didn‘t quite reach her eyes? How those sky blue eyes never really sparkled anymore?

  
Before Stress could leave the building someone grabbed her arm and she turned around to glare at whoever. The glare failed when she came face to face with False.

  
“Stress… What‘s wrong? I thought you‘d be happy for me.”

  
“Well, I‘m not.”

  
False expression fell even more, shoulders sagging, her whole body seemed to deflate. Maybe Stress should have lied, said she had been having a bad day, but seeing False like this she just couldn’t pretend to be happy.

  
“Why? I- I‘m working real hard. I‘m gonna make you all proud. I‘ll win this and I thought… I…” False was stumbling over her words, something that rarely happened and the hand holding Stress‘ arm moved down until their hands were touching, False thumb gently tracing down the back of Stress‘ hand. Stress looked at her. Was she imagining this or was a shadow of the sparkle back in False’s eyes? “Maybe you could come and cheer me on this time. I‘m allowed to bring a plus one, you know. We could celebrate my victory together and-”

  
“I‘d rather not.”

  
False face fell again. The ghost of a smile that had been there disappearing.

  
“Stress…” She sounded so tired, way too tired. “I worked really hard and I… With you by my side I could really pull this off. I want you to cheer for me.”

  
“Well, I can‘t. I don‘t even want you to be in this stupid competition, let alone win it. I hope you lose so this whole madness can be over”, Stress replied, voice a bit colder than she intended in her worry induced rage. She took a deep calming breath before continuing. “So no… I won‘t be cheering you on. I want you to take a break. Please.” Her voice was so much softer in the end, trying to convey all the worry she felt deep down.

  
False let go of her hand then, taking a step back.

  
“I worked hard for this, Stress. I know I can do this. I know my limits. Only if I‘m pushing them I can get better. And when I win I‘ll try to aim for… something… something bigger.”

  
Stress shook her head and turned around. She could feel the stinging of unshed tears behind her eyes. “Don‘t expect me to be there to watch you train yourself to death then”, she whispered sadly and kept walking. 

  
She really hoped False would stop her once more, grab her arm and promise to take it slow. She never did. And Stress kept walking away, until she had reached the portal of the shopping district. And only when she felt the magic of it whisk her away, she let her tears of worry and frustration fall.

  
~*~

  
A week passed and Stress was getting more and more worried. False looked like a shadow of herself and none of the others seemed to notice or if they did, they let her go with an assurance that she was fine.

  
Stress knew she wasn’t. And she was worried that something might happen. So she stuck around, watching False during her training from afar. A training that was getting more and more out of hand, pushing the boundaries again and again, not giving the body any time to rest. 

  
Stress sighed and leaned back against the trunk of the tree she was perched on, overseeing the field in which False was fighting zombie after zombie right now that popped from some contraption below ground she had built earlier. The oncoming attack never stopped and False didn’t seem like she would close up the hole in the ground anytime soon.

  
This had been going on for hours.

  
And Stress could see that False was running out of energy from the way her usually precise strikes were not right on point anymore. The way she had stopped moving so swiftly over the ground to dodge the attacks, now simply using her sword to parry. 

  
The Zombies were burning the moment they hit the surface and there were already a few blisters on False’s arm from when she had been too slow to react. Stress let her eyes leave False for a few seconds to look at the skyline. The sun was setting. And sure, she was grateful that False wouldn’t get anymore burns, but it also meant the Zombies were at full health and other creatures might spawn nearby.

  
False didn’t stop. Not even when the first spider snuck up behind her, managing to bite her ankle. She just cursed loudly and turned around, impaling the creature. The fighting kept going.

  
Another bunch of Zombies, a creeper - False barely managing to keep it from blowing up - a couple of skeletons. False kept going.

  
And then she suddenly was swaying, sword falling from her hand as she tried to gain her balance, one hand going to her head. Stress watched in horror as she stumbled, sinking to her knees. Another round of Zombies popped up from the hole, walking towards False who made no move to get back up, body shaking.

  
And sure, respawn was a thing here, but Stress couldn’t stand by. She couldn’t watch False get torn apart by mobs. It would be so painful.

  
Stress jumped from the tree, a sword already in hand as she glided down, landing right in front of False’s fallen form.

  
“Stress…?”, came a mumbled question and Stress just made an affirmative noise before moving forward, slicing up Zombie after Zombie, eyes glowing in the light of the moon. She wouldn’t let any harm come to False. One Mob after the other fell until Stress reached the hole, quickly shutting the trapdoor on top of it, locking it tightly.

  
That at least took care of the never ending stream of Zombies. Stress moved to False, keeping her eyes on their surroundings. No Mob was close by at the moment so she kneeled down next to False, softly putting her hand on False’s forehead. It was far too warm to the touch.

  
“False? What happened.”

  
False made a small pained noise and it sounded more vulnerable than Stress had ever heard her.

  
“Nothing. Just… I just stumbled. Thanks for helping me though. Respawning would have really put me behind on my training schedule. The Tournament is tomorrow already after all”, False said and then to Stress’ horror she moved back and stood up again, swaying on her feet, taking a careful step in the direction of the trapdoor.

  
And Stress just about had it. She jumped to her feet and stepped into False’s path, putting a hand on her chest. False glared at her, but it didn’t have the usual fire with how tired and out of it she looked.

  
“Why, Stress?”

  
“You can’t fight anymore today and-”

  
“No. Why are you so against me competing? Why can’t you be happy for me? Why can’t you cheer me on again? You were smiling so brightly the first time I won! You were smiling at only me and nobody else! Why can’t you smile like that again? Why don’t you want me to win again? I just want you to smile at me like that again!”

  
Stress was taken aback at the outburst, eyes going wide, heat rising to her cheeks.

  
“False… That’s-”

  
But False didn’t seem to listen, looking right through her as if she wasn’t even there.

  
“I just want her to be happy. I love it when she’s happy. I love her smile”, she mumbled quietly, voice getting a bit slurred, her eyes unfocused. “I want to win for her. I want to take the third win. I want her to smile and then tell her… I love you, Stress.”

  
Time seemed to freeze for a moment. Stress felt her heart stop for a moment only to start racing like crazy. She opened her mouth to reply, but the moment she did False’s eyes rolled back into her head and she collapsed right into Stress’ arms.

  
~*~

  
Stress stepped into the room, looking at False. She was still asleep, but Xisuma had already assured her earlier that she’d probably not wake up while she was gone for a few hours to get some important things done.

  
Doc raised his head, nodding and getting up from the chair standing at the bedside. When he passed her on his way to the door he patted her shoulder gently, before leaving and closing the door behind himself.

  
Stress sat down into the chair, looking at False’s face. It looked so peaceful. The dark bags below her eyes had disappeared again and the potions Xisuma had splashed on her had helped her recover a bit. There were no more scratches and her cheeks were tinted slightly pink again.

  
Stress gently tucked one loose strand behind False’s ear, humming softly, her hand staying in the soft hair, caressing it as she was lost in thought.

  
Another hour passed and suddenly a quiet moan interrupted Stress’ humming.

  
“False?” Another groan and those sky blue eyes were looking at her, though she still seemed slightly out of it.

  
“Stress? Where? What?”

  
“You passed out during training yesterday. You’re at my base. Xisuma and Doc helped me take care of you.”

  
“Thanks. I…” False’s eyes widened and she suddenly sat straight up in bed so fast it made Stress jump a bit. Only a second later False fell back into the pillow with a pained noise, holding one hand to her head. 

  
“Stay down, False. You’re still not completely recovered.”

  
“The tournament, Stress! I- Get me a few healing potions. I need to go to the MCC.”

  
She tried to sit up again, but Stress kept one hand on her chest, pushing her back down.

  
“It’s already over. It ended two hours ago.”

  
False’s face fell, a look of disappointment made its way onto her tired face.

  
“I really wanted to win.” 

  
“I know… But you pushed yourself way too hard. I know you wanted this False. But… Do you know how painful it was watching you train yourself to self destruction. Please, never do that again.”

  
“But I need to-”

  
“No. You really don’t. I did it for you.”

  
“What?” False looked at her in confusion and Stress smiled, stretching out her hand and accessing her inventory. It took a few seconds and then a golden crown appeared into her hand. 

  
“I went in your place. I did it for you this time, so that I can do what you wanted to do.”

  
“Stress…”

  
Stress smiled and gently put the crown on top of False’s head.

  
“Everything you wanted to do”, she whispered and then bent over False, softly pressing their lips together. When she pulled back, False’s whole face had seemed to light up, her cheeks red.

  
“So you…?”

  
“I love you, you absolute idiot. And if you stop training yourself to death now you’ll realise that I always smile at you as if you’re the most precious thing in the world. So promise to take care of yourself.”

  
False nodded and a second later their lips were locked together again.


	17. Love War

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grian/Ren/Doc

Ren stood next to Doc, both of them on top of the base they had built for Team Star. He knew that look on Doc‘s face and he followed his gaze. He chuckled when they landed on a speck of red in the middle of the clearing between their bases, sneaking around. Only Grian could think he‘d be able to infiltrate an enemy base in that outfit… Or maybe he was planning to be seen. As a distraction. There was also the fact that Impulse was on Team Star. If he had been on watch right now he wouldn‘t have been able to discern between the colour of Grian‘s sweater and the bright green of the grass.

Ren looked back to Doc again, smiling fondly.

“So him, huh?” Doc nodded, eyes never leaving Grian. “Well I‘ll admit the first time I saw him I thought he might be to your liking. He has a certain charm to him that one. And then he started a war against you. One might think he got a manual to get into your heart.”

Doc rolled his eyes and huffed a breath at that, finally turning to Ren.

“Inviting him into our bed hardly means he made his way into my heart, dear. You already take up way too much space there.”

Ren was smiling, compliments like that still making his heart swell. Doc wasn‘t a man of many words and that made some people believe he was stoic, cold and emotionless. But he wasn‘t. 

“I don‘t really think it‘s his body you‘re after.”

“Have you seen him?”

“Alright, alright. It‘s not only his body you‘re after. He gives you the thrill. You want to conquer him completely - including his heart.”

Doc grumbled but didn‘t deny Ren‘s claim. A satisfied smirk appeared on Ren‘s face, bordering on gloating. But before he could make a snide comment, Doc pulled him forward, kissing the grin right off his face. Ren closed his eyes, letting himself be dominated this time, letting Doc push him against one of the weapons and loom over him as he kept deepening the kiss. Doc might have effectively shut him up, but that didn‘t mean he had made the topic at hand disappear forever. Ren would make sure of that.

It took planning. A lot of planning. Sneaking around both teams in order to hide his intentions. He had managed to get Grian to agree to meet them, on the pretence that they were to hand over Mumbo. Doc was also kept to believe that.

Sure, they‘d return Mumbo, but not now, not there. Ren had told Doc to go ahead, that he‘d join him with Mumbo later and Doc had gone ahead. Ren looked from their base over the wide space in between and took a deep breath, trying to steel himself for what was ahead. It might have been Doc who had first shown interest in Grian, but that didn‘t mean Ren wasn‘t interested as well. And how couldn‘t he be?

Grian, all sunny smiles and nothing but kindness ever since the season had begun. The way he laughed at each and every one of Ren‘s stupid joke so genuinely. The way he was always there to help Ren out when he needed it.

It wasn‘t only Doc that was interested in Grian. No. Ren wanted him as well. And he wasn‘t as much in denial as his boyfriend about matters of the heart. He really wanted Grian to be a part of what they had.

Ren glided down from the base and stepped up to the place they were supposed to meet in, stepping inside, all smiles and looking between Grian and Doc who were already there, half heartedly glaring at one another. Ren felt like he could cut the sexual tension in here with a knife.

When Doc managed to tear himself away to look at Ren a confused frown crossed his face.

“Ren. Where‘s the spy?”

Ren just smiled and shrugged. “Was I supposed to bring him? Must have slipped my mind.” Doc looked at him in irritation and Ren knew he would have gotten himself a long rant if they‘d been alone. “I‘ll send him over once the talks here are done.”

“Without Mumbo there‘s not really much we have to talk about”, Doc growled, arms crossed in front of his chest, absolutely pissed at his big show not playing out like he had planned.

“Ren? Are you guys holding Mumbo prisoner?”, Grian asked, voice wavering a bit. And Ren smiled at him. God, Grian was adorable. 

“No worries, G-man. Mumbo is a free man. It was just an excuse to get you here alone.”

He really could have worded that better. He should have worded that better. Grian immediately tensed up, jumping back and drawing his sword, his other hand going to his communicator. 

Doc shot Ren one last pissed off look, but then seemed to decide to go along with what he thought was Ren‘s plan, drawing out his trident and throwing it at Grian, hitting the communicator out of his hand without injuring him. Ren was always impressed at the preciseness that Doc had.

“No calling for help, Grian. Whatever that idiot here has planned, it doesn‘t involve your little friends”, Doc said, voice low, fixating Grian with an intense stare.

Seeing those two look at each other in such a heated way… It did things to Ren and he almost didn‘t speak up, needing to swallow a few times to find his voice again.

“I don‘t want to hurt you, Grian. We just really need to talk.”

“About what?”, Grian spat, a fire in his eyes and now both of those heated glares were directed at him. Oh god he was so getting a lecture from Doc later about keeping this a secret to him.

“About the way you look at my boyfriend and-”

Ren wanted to go on, but Grian had dropped his sword with a loud clang, gasping and raising his hands in defence.

“I swear I‘m not- I don‘t- It‘s not- It‘s not what it looks like! I swear, Ren! I- I‘m-”

Ren raised his voice a bit to let himself be heard over Grian‘s panicky ramblings. “And also the way my boyfriend looks at you. And well… Can‘t blame him because I look at you the same way.”

And that effectively shut Grian up. Doc on the other hand…

“Ren, what the hell are you doing?”

“Confessing. You two would never get around to it. You confuse passionate love for the heat of war.” He turned back from Doc to Grian and smiled warmly. “So what do you say, Grian. Are you interested in having two boyfriends after this war is all done?”

Grian‘s eyes wandered from Ren to Doc and back before he nodded, a shy smile on his lips.

“Yeah… Yeah, I‘d like that very much.”


	18. Say You Love Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Techno/Grian

Grian leant into the touch, hot lips on his, arms wrapped around him, hands caressing him. He needed - he wanted - more, to be closer, but there was already no space in between them. He made a needy sound and an amused huff was the answer he got as a tongue entered his mouth again.  
  


There was a loud knock and Grian jumped away as if he had been hit by a trident, hurrying off to the other side of the room, his whole face red. The door opened and Ren stepped inside, all smiles and cheery. “Grian! What’s taking you so long, dude? Is the costume giving you problems? Is it the wrong size?”, Ren went rambling on as he stepped into the room.

  
Grian smiled tightly, shaking his head. “No. Don’t worry. I…” He stopped, searching his brain for an excuse, anything that would be believable. “I had to fix one of the buttons that fell off, but it’s all fine now. I was just finishing up putting my stuff away. I’m ready now.”

  
Ren smiled and slung his arm around Grian, pulling him along. “Well let’s go then!”, he exclaimed cheerfully on their way to the door, turning a bit before stepping through, to look at the only other person still in the dressing room. “See you on the battlefield, Techno.”

  
Grian cast one last longing look before he was shoved out the door by his friend. Damn, and it had started to get real nice.

  
Grian didn’t have another opportunity to get Techno alone until breaktime. He was tired, exhausted even. The previous round had been one of these stupid parcour runs and he had tried so hard this time only to fail spectacularly once again.

  
They had an hour before the next round to relax and recharge their energy. Grian would have loved to join Techno, but just before he had reached him, Techno had been pulled away by his friends to get some food.

  
So Grian went to the outskirts of the MCC area, just outside the official tournament grounds to a small tree. He’d take just a little nap and then he’d have enough energy to go for the rest of the competition. The grass was soft beneath him as he laid down in the shade of the tree. His eyes drifted shut and his breathing evened out.

  
He dreamt of the finale. Of cheering Techno on without a care. Of Techno winning the trophy and holding it up… Of running up to Techno, throwing his arms around him and kissing him. In front of his friends, in front of the other teams, in front of the world.

  
His lips felt warm and he slowly slipped out of sleep as his brain caught up to the fact that the kiss wasn’t happening in a dream. It was very much real. He opened his eyes slowly. He knew the feeling of those lips. And his guess was only confirmed when he saw light pink hair through the blurriness of sleep. The kiss was soft and so full of love. It warmed his heart. It was moments like this when he felt safest. Just him and Techno and the birds tweeting and-

  
Wait! Birds! They were outside! Outside where anyone could see.

  
Grian pushed Techno away, looking at him with wide, scared eyes. “Not here. Anyone could walk by.”

  
“Let them.”

  
“Techno…”

  
“I’m tired of hiding.”

  
“We talked about this…” Grian lowered his gaze, his hand still lingering on Techno’s chest. They were still close. Too close. If someone were to see. “I… They can’t know. I’m not ready.”

  
Techno heaved a sigh and finally drew back, standing up again and looking down at Grian.

  
“Will you ever be?”

  
“I-”, Grian stopped. He had been about to give the same answer he always gave. About to tell Techno that he just needed a little more time. A little more time to do what? Wait some more? Wasn’t he sure by now that the Hermits wouldn’t shun him for being gay?

  
But there was still that one voice in his mind. The one that told him bad things. The voice that gave him scary visions. Visions of the Hermits finding out and staring at him out of hateful eyes, of them thinking Grian was disgusting. He was afraid. And he was stuck. 

  
“I don‘t know”, he finally replied, maybe the first time he had been truthful to Techno and also to himself.

  
“I’m tired of hiding… I’m so tired of this”, Techno muttered and Grian felt his heart drop at the implication. 

  
“If you want to break up, then w-”

  
“Oh god fucking damn it, Grian! You… Fuck. No. I don’t-” Techno stopped and made a loud annoyed sound, turning his back to Grian and taking a few calming breaths before facing him again. “I don’t want to break up. I know you’ve had bad experiences before. I know and I love you with all your baggage. Just… It’s hard. I love you and I want the whole world to know how happy we are, how happy you make me.“

  
Grian lowered his gaze a little. He wanted to give Techno the world. Everything. Techno deserved it.

  
“I…” Grian’s voice was trembling, his hands shaking, throat tight. “Okay.”

  
“Okay?”

  
“We can go public”, Grian felt like he was about to vomit. A voice in his head kept screaming at him to take it back, not to do it. It was screaming thousand ‘what if’s at him, one worse than the other. What if the Hermits reacted badly? What if they would leave him stranded in this world? What if Techno’s friends weren’t okay with this? He couldn’t bear Techno getting hurt, he just couldn’t.

  
There were hands around him and Grian’s face was pressed into Techno’s chest, listening to the soft heart beat and it helped him drown out the voices a bit better.

  
“We don’t have to go public, you know? I won’t leave you because of it. It’s… Don’t worry about me. I shouldn’t be this pushy.”

  
And Grian knew Techno meant what he said. Techno would wait for him forever if necessary. He would stay by Grian’s side even in the highly unlikely case that everyone else might. 

  
Grian shook his head and looked up into his boyfriends shining eyes. 

  
“I’ll never be ready”, he whispered quietly and he saw the way Techno tried to hide the pain from his gaze at those words. “And that’s exactly why we should be doing it now…”

  
Techno wanted to protest, Grian knew he wanted to. It was kind of funny, when he had been the one asking for them to go public just a few minutes ago. This only proved how much Techno cared for him.

  
“Grian-”

  
“Let’s turn it into a competition. You can’t say no to those. If your team comes first and you’re still standing in the ring, then we can go public, alright? Any other place and we wait.”

  
Techno hesitated, but then chuckled, a gleam in his eyes. He took Grian’s chin into his hand, tilting his head back and then their lips met. This wasn’t just a kiss or accepting the challenge. This was a promise. A promise that everything would turn out alright.

  
When they went back to the competition, Grian’s heart was racing whenever he looked at the scoreboard. The name of Techno’s team was still in second place, but the difference between them became smaller and smaller. Techno was pushing himself hard, shouting at his teammates, throwing himself into every game as if his life depended on it.

  
Grian was almost worried, but he knew Techno would know his own boundaries. Challenges just always motivated him like that and it was kind of endearing. Grian couldn’t help but smile, quickly hiding his face so his teammates wouldn’t notice.

  
The games passed one by one and right at the end of the last game, Techno managed to push his opponent off the arena, earning himself the last points needed to get his team to tie for first place. Grian felt his heart racing as they all stepped to the last arena, where the final battle would be.

  
He hesitantly picked up a bright green banner, declaring his support for Techno and when their eyes met, Techno smiled brightly, holding up his bow as if he already wanted to declare his triumph. But could Techno really win? The opposing team had Dream on it and that guy had won so many Championships by now...

  
Grian watched with bated breath. Techno was playing aggressively, rolling over to get arrows, just to immediately shoot them out again, hitting his opponents dead on. It only took them a minute to win the first round. Techno smiled at him and blew a kiss into his general directions, a few girls and boys around Grian squealing in delight.

  
The second round went to Techno’s team as well, but Grian could tell that Techno was pushing himself too hard now. He was out of breath, the bow shaking a bit in his griü. Grian’s eyes drifted to the opposing team and with a sinking feeling in his chest he realised that they had noticed it too. The moment they had both arrows in their possession they focused in on Techno and while he was able to dodge the first one, he stumbled and was taken out by the next, the rest of his teammates following soon after. 

  
When the fourth round started, Techno looked frustrated, snapping at his teammates and Grian really regretted turning this into a competition. Maybe it had been a bad idea. maybe this all had been a bad idea.

  
His grip on the banner tightened. God, all of this was so stupid.. 

  
He pressed his eyes shut. The crowd around him suddenly seemed far too loud, their bodies far too close. They broke out into screams and Grian knew another round had finished, but as he opened his eyes he saw only Dream left in the arena and his heart fell.

  
This had been a dumb idea. Maybe he should have never offered. Maybe it had been right to keep everything a secret. Maybe this was some higher power telling him that he needed to keep all his happiness hidden. Maybe some godly being was trying to protect him from being kicked out another server again. Maybe…

  
“Love!”

  
Grian’s eyes snapped open as he heard the loud shout, looking to the arena where Techno stood again. How he had managed to realise that Grian was spiralling from that far was a fucking miracle.

  
“I’m winning this, love! And then I’m expecting a victory kiss!”

  
There were lots of giggles all around and confused whispers, but soon everyone was cheering again. Grian noticed the way Dream also looked into the direction Techno had shouted to, his eyes searching the crowd before landing right on Grian, looking at him intently and then smirking.

  
Grian couldn’t linger on that for too long though, when the signal for the last round rang. Both teams got ready, shooting arrow after arrow, jumping and rolling around, just barely missing the edge of the small arena. Techno seemed more focused again, never once faltering, not even when both of his teammates got eliminated at the same time.

  
Techno took both of the arrows, pulling one back, eyes darting around, searching for a target. Dream said something, looking rather amused, too quiet to pick up over all the cheering. Techno growled and then fired, though not at Dream but in quick succession at the other team members, both arrows hitting their target.

  
Grian jumped up in excitement, gripping the pole of the banner so hard he was sure it would break any moment.

  
Dream had both arrows now. His eyes seemed to dart to Grian again, before shooting one arrow over to Techno, missing him by quite a bit and then saying something again. Grian could only pick up the words ‘fair fight’ over the roaring crowd. They both put the arrow onto their bow, muscles tense, ready to dodge any second. Dream’s arm twitched and Techno jumped to the side. But the arrow didn’t come flying and when Techno was half kneeling on the floor from his evasive manoeuvrer, Dream still holding up his bow, arrow pointed at Techno’s face, Grian knew it was over.

  
Dream fired the arrow.

  
And in the last second Techno managed to stop the arrow by holding up his own bow, the metal tip piercing the wood, but never once touching Techno. With the arrow still embedded into the wood, he pulled back his own and let it fly, the tip hitting Dream square in the chest. Dream’s body dissolved into a cloud of green, a small smile on his face.

  
Confetti was flying from the sky. Techno’s teammates were teleported back into the ring and golden crowns appeared on all of their heads. The ring was rising again as parts connecting it to the outside appeared. Techno began walking forward, moving into the viewer ranks and people stepped aside. He kept walking, steps not faltering, stopping right in front of Grian.

  
Grian’s heart was racing. He knew what was coming. But the way Techno was looking at him, eyes searching, asking for permission. Grian smiled softly and nodded and then Techno’s arms were around him, lips on his. Everything around Grian seemed to disappear. He could no longer hear the screams or feel the proximity of the crowd surrounding them. He only felt Techno. Only him.

  
When they separated, the sounds around them finally managed to get to Grian’s brain again and he could hear joyful cheering from all around. Nobody looked angry, mad, or disgusted. His eyes snapped to the Hermits just off to the side. When they noticed the stare, False just smiled and nodded in approval, while Ren - who seemed a bit teary-eyed - smiled and put both of his thumbs up, whistling loudly.

  
“I love you, Grian.”, Techno said, voice loud and Grian knew that everyone close enough could hear. And for once he really didn’t feel scared about that.

  
“I love you too.”


	19. The Void

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grian/Ren

Ren really enjoyed the company of their newest member on the server. Grian was overall a nice addition. He was so open with all of them and spread fun everywhere he went. Sure, Ren had been on the receiving end of quite a few pranks, but he really didn’t mind that much.

  
There was a quiet noise and he looked at his communicator, putting his shovel to the side.

  
Grian fell into the void.

  
Ren winced. Again? Now that he thought about it… How many times had it been this week? He knew Sahara needed an ungodly amount of Shulkerboxes, but why send Grian, when he was so unlucky?

  
And not just this week. Since they had cleared the path to the other dimension that same message of Grian dying had come up again and again

  
The first time he had seen the message pop up on his communicator, he hadn’t been bothered at all. A lot of Hermits had managed to fall into the voids if their Elytra broke, they went out of rockets or just simply lost orientation. Or in the beginning when they needed to bridge over the endless nothingness.

  
But this? This was getting weird. It was as if Grian fell into it every time he went to the end. And it worried Ren. Falling into the void wasn’t a quick and painless death. It hurt like hell and it took really long.

  
<Ren> You alright, G-man? Need any help?

  
It took Grian a while to respond and Ren could just envision it: Grian lying on his back, being still a little out of it from respawning.

  
<Grian> I’m fine. I just miscalculated the landing.

  
<Ren> Need some help to get your stuff back? I can help you grind a bit.

  
Ren waited. The answer took unusually long. it had just been a nice offer since Ren knew how much it sucked, falling into the void and losing everything. Finally, there was a beep and Ren already got up, expecting to be called away to help.

  
<Grian> It’s fine. I had most of my stuff in my Enderchest already. That was really lucky.

  
Ren raised an eyebrow at that. Hadn’t Grian also said that to Mumbo a few days ago… Ren was pretty sure he had heard this a couple of times already. Now the question was, did Grian make that up as an excuse so nobody needed to help him or did he really put all his stuff away because he was so prone to dying.

  
<Ren> Alright! Maybe we should go to the End together next time. Then I can make sure you won’t fall! You really should take part in the buddy system we got going on.

  
There was no reply this time and Ren sighed. Grian always went to the end alone, declining every offer for help. Heck, even Doc in the middle of their Civil War had offered to accompany Grian when they had run into each other at the End portal.

  
If Ren ever met Grian at that portal, he swore he would make sure to stick to his side no matter what Grian said.

  
Weeks passed and Ren grew more and more worried. Sure, Grian was completely normal and healthy, but the constant deaths in the End still kept going, sometimes more often and sometimes few and far in between. And Ren was pretty sure that Grian didn’t even go to the End when there was a long time of him not dying in the void.

  
They had been getting closer and closer during the season and Ren had seen Grian fly around, easily landing on a tiny block mid air at almost full speed. This wasn’t a person who would miscalculate a landing or run out of rockets at the wrong time. Grian was too graceful for that, too good.

  
Ren looked at Grian through the flames of the campfire, his flower crown slightly crooked, but a bright smile on his lips. And Ren couldn’t help but smile as well when Grian looked at him, eyes sparkling.

  
“Well, thanks for this lovely evening Ren”, Grian said, a slight blush on his cheeks as he got up. “We really should do it again soon. But I really need to go now. Sahara needs a ton of Shulkers again and Mumbo and Iskall are busy with the redstone and-”

  
Grian stopped when Ren suddenly grabbed his hand, keeping him from moving away.

  
“Don’t.”

  
“Ren, what…?”

  
“Don’t go into the End. Or don’t go alone. You can’t… I don’t want anything to happen to you. I’m worried. All this dying can’t be good for your health.”

  
Grian smiled. A sad smile and he gently tore his hand from Ren’s grasp.

  
“I’ll be fine. I know what I’m doing.”

  
“But-”

  
Grian put a finger against Ren’s lips and Ren could feel the heat rising to his cheeks.

  
“I promise, I’m alright.”

  
And as if he had known that Ren would still be too stunned to react he took out his rockets to take off quickly. By the time Ren had snapped out of it Grian was long gone. Damn. How could he let his stupid crush keep him from staying by Grian’s side like he had vowed to do?

  
Ren quickly jumped up, going to his RV. Of course Grian had kept all his stuff on him already while Ren had to get his Elytra and rockets first. And in which chest had he thrown it again? Damn, he hadn’t paid attention earlier, too nervous from the fact that he had managed to invite Grian over to a fucking dinner date.

  
It took him way too long. He knew Grian would be gone by the time he arrived. That still didn’t stop him from rushing towards the End portal. When he stepped into the End, the main island was deserted. Well, deserted except for a bunch of enderman.

  
Ren put his head back slightly, trying to pick up a noise or a scent in the wind. His senses were slightly better than the average human’s and the full moon was close. It was faint, but Ren would recognise that scent everywhere. Grian! He dashed to one of the portals and threw an Enderpearl inside to get whisked miles and miles away.

  
He searched everywhere. Endcity after Endcity. Sometimes he picked up Grian’s scent, but it got less strong by the minute. Ren was falling further and further behind. And then, when he hit the next Endcity he lost the trail altogether. Damn it! He had wanted to protect Grian. He wanted to be there for him.

  
With a sigh Ren let his head hang low and trotted back out of the building to look for one of the Endportals. It took him a while, but then he was standing on the Main Island again. And a familiar scent hit him full force. Grian! Ren jumped up the stairs leading to the main area and then he stopped. There was Grian, kneeling in front of the portal leading home, not wearing any of his equipment, an Enderchest standing next to him.

  
Ren stepped closer, quietly until he was behind Grian.

  
“Grian… Are you-”

  
Grian’s head whipped around fast and Ren gasped. There were trails of tears on Grian’s face and he looked so small and scared.

  
“R-Ren. I didn’t think you’d- I thought you were… Why are you here?”

  
“I was worried.”

  
Grian smiled, if only a little and then got to his feet.

  
“I’m… I was just…”, Grian seemed to search for the right thing to say, his eyes slowly traveling slightly to the left and Ren already knew then. He was able to read Grian by now. Whatever left his mouth next was a lie. “I sprained my ankle a bit when I missed the portal. I hit the ground too hard. I’m… It’s a bit better now. Why don’t you go ahead and jump in and I’ll be right there behind you, yes?”

  
“No worries. We can jump in together. I can carry you.” He’d believe that lie if it meant he would be able to get Grian to the overworld again safely.

  
“I…” Grian’s hands were shaking as he spoke, his eyes darting to the portal, a haunted expression on his face and that’s when it hit Ren. For whatever reason Grian was scared. Scared of…

  
“You never once jumped into this portal, did you? You jump into the void on purpose to get back to your spawn point.”

  
Grian flinched and Ren knew he’d found the answer. This was the reason Grian died so often in the End. It was his way home.

  
“Why, Grian? Why are you so scared of going in there? We all do it. It doesn’t hurt. It’s safe. It’s-”

  
“I don’t want to leave.”

  
Ren knitted his eyebrows in confusion at the statement. It seemed so random.

  
“I don’t want you to leave either, but the portal will just transport you home.”

  
Grian shook his head and tears welled up in his eyes again, he was holding himself now, his whole posture seeming so small and uncertain, so unlike the confident and cheerful Grian that Ren had fallen for.

  
“The- The last time... I jumped into it before. They took me.”

  
“They?”

  
“The Watchers…” Grian’s voice was barely above a whisper but he sounded so scared as if saying the word too loud might call the ones he was talking about.

  
“Watchers? But they are nothing but an Urban Legend. A myth. They’re not…”

  
Grian sobbed and Ren stopped talking. Something changed in the air between them. A red haze surrounded Grian and suddenly his eyes were glowing golden and black wings appeared on his back. And on Grian’s arms glowing markings appeared, lots and lots of drawings of open eyes, all seemingly staring at him. Ren gasped and stumbled back a few steps, which in turn made a grim smile appear on Grian’s face.

  
“I look like a monster, I know. When I jumped into the portal I lost everything. They turned me into this. What if they take me again? I don’t want to leave this world. I don’t want to lose everyone. And I don’t want to lose you. I can’t lose you. Not you. And now you know I’m a monster and everything will be different and you’ll leave me and-”

  
Ren rushed forward, his arms moving around Grian, careful not to disturb his wings, pressing him close to his chest.

  
“I’m here. I won’t leave. Ever. I love you.”

  
The shaking stopped and Grian raised his head slightly, looking at Ren. And while his eyes might be glowing golden, Ren could still see the emotion in there. Hope.

  
“You do?”

  
“Yes. And no matter what, I’ll protect you. I don’t know what happened in your last world, but Xisuma’s magic is strong. He has made sure nobody and nothing can get into our world. You’re safe here.”

  
“Are you sure…?”

  
Ren nodded and then stepped up to the portal, guiding Grian to go with him, both of them standing on the edge.

  
“I won’t force you to jump in, but we can do it together.”

  
“Yes, please.”

  
Grian’s hand was shaking and Ren pressed it reassuringly as he took the last step needed, pulling Grian along with him.

  
He felt the magic of the portal wash over him and then the hand in his was gone as he landed on his soft bed in the RV. Respawn points. Fuck. Of course he wouldn’t stay with Grian. They hadn’t set the same respawn point.

  
Ren jumped up and ran out of his RV, hurrying to get to Grian, praying that he was still there. Just as he was about to kick in the door of Grian’s RV it opened and Grian stood there, back to his normal self, wide bright blue eyes looking at Ren.

  
Both of them just stared at each other for a second and then Ren pulled Grian into a hug once more, holding onto him as if he never wanted to let go.

  
“Thanks, Ren…”, Grian muttered into his shoulder and then turned his head slightly to be able to look at Ren. “I love you too.”


	20. Under Pressure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grian/Doc
> 
> Small Warning: This is set right after December’s MCC, so if you missed that and want to watch it first, don’t read on. It spoilers the last round.   
> You don’t need to have watched the MCC to understand this story though.

Grian stepped into the portal alongside False. She patted his back once and then they were whisked away. And as Grian felt the magic whisk him away, he forced the corners of his mouth upwards. Not a second too soon. When they reappeared in the portal in the middle of the Shopping District there was already a crowd of Hermits waiting for him. It was a flurry of things happening. A confetti cannon shot at them while fireworks lit up the night sky. So many people pulled Grian close, congratulating him for the second place and telling him how close it had been and how well he’d done in the finals. And Grian smiled and nodded on.  
  


“You good?”, Mumbo’s quiet voice whispered into his ear during a congratulatory hug and Grian felt a stinging sensation behind his eyes. But he stood his ground, biting his teeth and then smiling wider, refusing to lose his inner battle.

  
“Yeah. A bit annoyed, but hey, who would have thought we could even land second place? I usually lead the end of the leader board. Turns out even an idiot like me can be lucky once in a while. Though luck will only get you this far.”

  
Mumbo looked at him, arms still around Grian, eyebrows knitted together in a frown.

  
“Grian. You did so good there. It wasn’t just luck.”

  
Grian took a calming breath and nodded, stepping out of Mumbo’s warm embrace. If he stayed in those comforting arms any longer he might lose it. This was a celebration. He should be happy and not get greedy for more.

  
“Thanks, Mumbo! Now how about we get some of those drinks and get this party going?”

  
Grian hurried off to a table set up in the corner and without even missing a beat downed one of the shots that was offered to him. He kept going, and going and going. Hermit after Hermit coming to him, wanting to drink with him. A clink here, a shot there, another glass coming. It was all a blur and his smile became more real, more cheerful as the alcohol numbed his depressive thoughts.

  
He giggled as he dragged Doc to the dancefloor and because it was his party Doc let him, letting himself be twirled around by Grian again and again until Grian almost fell down. Doc gave a sigh and carefully pulled him back to the side, pushing him into the chair and handing him a glass of water.

  
Grian smiled at him, just barely able to hold himself back from telling Doc how pretty he looked and how much Grian wanted to kiss him right now. He had done enough stupid things for one day.

  
He drank the water. Sip after sip. The music was so loud, the lights flashing. Some of the alcohol’s buzz seemed to fade and Grian found himself being overwhelmed by all the sensations. He carefully got to his feet again and then staggered away. He needed a quiet place. Just for a minute. Then he’d be back to partying. Back to smiling. Back to being happy. Just one minute…

  
Grian stepped into the barge, the shop only dimly lit in the night, the flashing lights off the party blocked out by the surrounding shops. The music seemed far away now. He breathed in the cold air and then sat down on the wooden fence of the little sandy patch in the middle, absentmindedly tracing patterns into it with his foot.

  
His mind went back to the last fight. The cheering crowd had been so loud. He had heard his name from every side. There had been so many people cheering him on. So much noise. Grian covered his ears up at the memory alone, but the sound in his mind didn’t seem to fade.

  
“So sorry. I’m so sorry. All my fault”, he whispered quietly as his chest got tighter. The burning behind his eyes was back, stronger this time. Fuck. He shouldn’t have drunk this much. It would have been easier to control his emotions then. He couldn’t cry now. Everyone would know if he returned with reddened eyes.

  
He heard the wood creak behind him as steps came closer and tensed.

_  
‘Smile!’_ , his mind seemed to scream at him. ' _Just smile!’_

  
But the corners of his mouth seemed frozen. His whole face actually. He couldn’t move. And then warm arms wrapped around him and he felt the first tear run down his face as he leant into the touch. It was like that simple hug had opened the floodgates and more tears kept coming. He was unable to stop now as his body started shaking and he let out a sob. He was turned around and only now got a glimpse of who had joined him.

  
Doc was looking at him with soft, worried eyes. So unlike all the past encounters where they had only faced each other on the battlefield.

  
“I lost, Doc. I lost.”

“It’s alright, Grian.”

  
But Grian shook his head. That's what everyone seemed to think. It was alright. They won second place after all. None of them had thought they’d make it to the finale. He wouldn’t have been upset if they had just landed third place.

  
“It’s not. I could have- I should have won this. We only needed one more round. Only one. I messed up.”

  
“You did your best.”

  
Grian shook his head vehemently.

  
“I didn’t. I just… I felt so pressured. I lost it. I broke under the pressure and that’s why we lost. It’s my fault. If only I had been able to ignore it all and play like it’s all just fun and games. I’m to blame! They all know it and now I’m being greedy thinking we deserved that win, when the other team fought so hard for it. I just… I really thought we had it in the end. I really thought we could come home with those crowns. Everyone else is so happy and I feel like a bad person because I’m not! I’m not happy about fucking second place! How arrogant can I be?” Tears flowed freely as Grian kept on ranting, looking at Doc’s face that was far too blurry through his tears to see how he was reacting.   
  
“I’m a bad person.”

  
Grian felt himself being pulled forward into Doc’s broad chest and a hand was tracing gentle circles

  
“You’re not. Fuck. It’s natural to be mad or angry or sad. You know how competitive I can be. I would be mad as well and blame myself. I do that a lot, but listen, Grian, blaming yourself never fixes anything. It’s not your fault. And even if it was, you can’t change it. The only thing you can change is the future. There will be more tournaments and we’ll all be there for you and help you get even better for the next one. We’ll help you get better. Just… It’s okay. Let it all out.”

  
Doc’s voice seemed so sincere, Grian couldn’t help but feel calmed by it, leaning into the other body even more, closing his eyes and just staying there as tears kept flowing down his face. And Doc just stayed there, hugging him close and caressing him softly.

  
It took him a few minutes to finally be able to stop and take a deep breath and he pulled back a bit out of the embrace. He looked back at Doc, feeling slightly embarrassed at the display the other had just witnessed.

  
“Thanks… Sorry that was a bit pathetic. I bet you never cry because of some dumb lost fight.”

  
Grian had expected Doc to laugh and tell him that yeah, tough guys like him would never cry and that Grian should man up, because real men don’t cry, but Doc’s features still stayed soft.

  
“Listen, I might seem a bit cold sometimes, but I’ve been where you’re at before. After the Civil War? God I was a mess.”

  
“You… were?”

  
“Grian, of course. It’s human to have emotions. We’re not machines.” Doc chuckled looking at his metallic arm. “Well not complete machines at last. So yeah, I’ve cried before and I would never think less of you because you’re sad about losing.”

  
Grian looked at Doc. doc who had just said exactly the words Grian had needed to hear, Doc looking at him so warmly, Doc, who always seemed to be able to make Grian more excited and happy than anyone else, even if they were fighting.

  
And then Grian surged forward, fuelled by emotions and alcohol, his lips pressing against Doc’s. He flinched back a second later, shocked at his own daring move, looking at Doc out of wide eyes. Doc seemed just as shocked, cheeks turning a dark shade of green.

  
No words were needed though, when they both slowly moved forward again, only hesitating for a second before their lips met once more.

  
~*~

  
The next time Grian competed, Doc was at his side, competing alongside him. Doc was there giving him a good luck kiss before every game, in between all rounds. They made it to the arena and Grian stood on the lowered platform. It was so close. Just like last time. He had messed up too often. If they lost now, they’d lose this fight again. The crowd was screaming around them, shouting names, a mess of noises. He felt an icy cold feeling spread through his chest.

  
He couldn’t do this. He would disappoint them all again. His arm was shaking.

  
Suddenly soft hands were on his ears and lips pressed against his forehead and then Doc’s mouth was right next to his ear.

  
“Nobody here matters but us. Just focus on this. Nothing else. We… I love you, no matter what happens next and that’s all that matters.”

  
And when Doc stepped back the sound of the crowd cheering faded into the background as Grian took his last shot of the third round, hitting his opponent straight in the centre of the chest.


End file.
